The Leaf's Blade
by Ryusen
Summary: After my last mission went to hell, I somehow ended up in a world where people shoot fire from their mouths, gigantic foxes with nine tails, soul stealing entities and hormonal red heads. What the hell happened... I suck at summaries... Rated M just in case
1. The hell!

**This is the very first fanfiction that I have ever written, and even thought about. The idea kept nagging me so much, that I couldn't sleep at night. So one school day I decided to just type this idea out and see what other people thought of it.**

 **In this story Minato and Kushina are younger than they are in canon.**

 **Minato is 20 years old, and Kushina is 18 years old. I feel like this is possible because of the world they live in and the fact that they have to grow up fast. And it's fun to write drama….. but hey that's just a minor reason.**

 **It's not. hueheuhue**

 **I don't own Naruto, the only person I own is the OC ^^**

 **Enjoy!**

 **OC P.O.V.**

I slowly opened my eyes, but the light was too bright so I quickly shut them again.

'Ugh, sun I love you, but do you have to do this every morning?'

I tried to get up, but I felt a sharp pain near my liver the moment my upper body bent. "Gah!"

Groaning from the pain and the sunlight in my eyes, I reached down to my shirt and lifted it up very carefully.

I raised my head a little and saw a big wound there where my liver was supposed to be, and it was bleeding badly. As I started looking around me, I saw a small brown backpack lying on the ground a few feet to my right.

Standing up while pressing my hand on the wound, I walked over to the backpack and open it. Inside I could see another T-shirt, a metal box, and a first aid kit. Taking out the first aid kit and opening it, I began applying the gun powder that I found inside and applied it on the wound. When I made sure that it was done properly I ignited the gunpowder and bit down a scream. After cleaning the wound, I could clearly see that the bleeding stopped and applied some bandages with iodine to make sure the wound does not get infected.

'Well, that was a terrific way to wake up..' I could see trees everywhere I looked, there was the sound of insects on the background and through a small opening, between the leaves of the trees above me, I could see the moon… Wait… The moon?

'I'm pretty sure I don't live inside a cave, so how did the moon blind me?' shrugging and leaving that thought behind I looked around me again and spotted the brown backpack from just now, and a sword.

The sword was quite long, but not large. Judging from the size it looks like you can either wear it with either both hands or just one. The sheath is black and has a red line that forms a dragon and the tail reaches to the tip of the sheath.

I decided to just pick everything up, so I grabbed the backpack and the sword. But as I picked up the sword it began to hum and shine a little. My eyes widened and I accidently dropped the sword and took a few steps back. "Woah… what the hell?" I said to no one in particular. As I took a few steps forward to pick up the sword again, I heard the same humming noise as before.

'What the hell? It feels as if it's happy that I'm picking it up… and I must say.. it feels good. It's heavy yet it feels like I can wield it without any problem.'

The moment I swung the sword on my back, the humming stopped. I shrugged it off as an hallucination because seriously, a sword is not supposed to make a sound when it's sheathed, right?

"Well, where am I?" I looked around me once again, but it had same result.

After walking for a long while I took a good look at my surroundings and noticed that the only difference from a few hours before was that the sun was long gone and the moon was high up in the sky illuminating the forest.

'Maybe I should search for a higher spot. Climbing in these trees would suffice, but how the hell am I going to reach those branches. They're like 20 meters high, so it's not like you can jump that high. But ah well, you apparently have humming swords too, so to hell with logic!'

As I bent my knees I took a deep breath. Then I released all the energy I could muster… and I flew up through the branches and above the leaves.

'Holy shit…' I looked around me and saw light and a lot of smoke in the distance, New Year's maybe?

That's when my ascension stopped and I began to descend. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Reacting on instinct I unsheathed my sword. I began to focus on the branches that I was supposed to fall on. I began slicing the branches and thrust the sword in the tree with my left hand to stop my descend, while preventing opening my wound again.

I released my breath. 'If I open that wound again, I won't survive. I'm running low on blood, meaning I'm on the edge of consciousness… Just great. Lucky me, but I got to check out the location the smoke comes from. It might be a village. God, why can I only remember bits and pieces, it sucks!'

'The light is on my left, so I might as well go in that direction.'

\- A short while later -

"Ugh... this forest is so big." I muttered while I worked my way through the bushes and branches on my way.

While I was thinking about where I was and if I could recognize something that might help me with working this situation out, a sudden loud roar and an insane amount of killer intent brought me to my knees.

"W-What... the .. hell!" My eyes widened, my breathing became irregular and I started to sweat all over. "What kind of sorcery is this?!"

While getting back on my feet I did a few breathing routines to get some air and much needed oxygen. I only saw trees when I looked around again, but no animals. There was not that much wild life around here, but it was definitely here before. 'Whatever it was just now, it's bad news. I better check it out before it comes hunting for me.'

I looked up to the sky and suddenly got an idea. Bending my knees yet again, I prepared to jump high, although not as high as before. The moment I was above the trees my breath hitched inside my throat. There, standing before me, was a giant ass fucking fox with nine tails. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!"

There was a village to my left and it was on fire. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots. 'That fox is attacking the village! I've got to eliminate it, but how... I mean I got a sword and superhuman strength. But shit that thing is gigantic... Well, fuck it. I can't stand by and let innocent people die!' With my renewed resolve and confidence I take off at insane speed towards the fox. 'Holy crap I just pushed myself off against the air... nice.'

I unsheathed my sword the moment I got close to the clearing and readied myself for the oncoming battle. That's when I saw three people next to the beast: a woman, a man and a baby. Glancing back at the beast I saw that he was about to strike the child, so I intercepted the claw and blocked it with my blade. "Hnnnng..!" I grunted. The immense force the beast tried to strike the baby with was insane and it caused my wound to reopen, but I kept the paw at bay. Glancing to my right, I saw the woman and man looking at me with eyes wide open. It actually looked pretty funny.

"Good evening." I said, smirking.

Instead of waiting for an answer, I pushed back the paw with a bit of effort and instinctively assumed a battle stance. I put my legs a bit further apart, bent my knees slightly and held my sword in my right hand. My right arm was put to shoulder height with a 90 degree angle while my left arm was positioned in front of me.

I could see the fox going for another strike and thus I engaged. Seeing the claw coming towards me I prepared to parry it. Straining my body to the limit I managed to do it, causing the fox to stumble. I saw the opportunity and went for the head of the fox attempting to stab one of his eyes, but one of the tails of the fox slammed me back down.

"Aah!" I yelled when I hit the ground. Standing back up again I could see that I was in quite a crater. 'Holy crap, I survived that.'

I landed in front of the red haired woman after jumping out of the crate blocking yet another claw of the fox. Grunting, I pushed the claw away and lunged at its leg, making the big fox roar in pain. Now that all of his attention was on me, I ran to the other side of the clearing while dodging a claw here and there. Resuming my battle with the fox, I kept op parrying, blocking, and getting a few hits in here and there. 'Yes, I can do this!' If only I didn't think that…

Jumping over a claw, I saw the fox's face coming towards me. I didn't see the attack from the side coming while I was preparing to block his attack from the front. "Aaah!" Flying through several dozen trees and finally stopping, meaning the last tree didn't give in, I fell to the ground. 'Fuck, that hurt.' Bleeding heavily from my chest, I could see three big lines. Probably from the claws of that damn fox. Standing up yet again, although with a lot more effort than last time, I ran back towards the clearing as fast as my legs could take me. I engaged the fox again with adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I saw the blond male talking to the red haired woman. Suddenly he stood up and began walking in our direction. The woman behind him was screaming "MINATO! DON'T DO IT!". 'Huh Minato, what a weird name.' Suddenly, I had to jump back, narrowly avoiding decapitation 'Woops, I should keep my attention on the big guy.' After a few minutes I noticed that I was beginning to slow down. 'Shit, the wounds are getting to me... I can't keep this up for longer. Why won't you just go down stupid fox!' But the fox wasn't showing any sign of slowing down yet.

What happened next baffled my mind. I landed next to the blonde male from before and then he looked at me with a smile. "Hello stranger, thank you for saving my wife's and son's life. Without you I would have had to make this sealing faster. Causing a bigger chance of it going horribly wrong."

I looked at him as if he had grown a second head "What the hell are you talking about? Sealing, are you planning to wrap him up in tin foil? That won't work ya know." I said to him

Suddenly the man chuckled as if he heard something funny.

"Ya know?"

I blushed and coughed.

"Sorry that kind of just came out."

The blond male looked at me and said "The name's Minato and that big fox over there is the Kyuubi. But enough about that. He spotted us, so I'll make this quick. Hold this guy off for a little longer, I have prepared something but it will take time and my wife doesn't have enough chakra left to summon the chains."

'Chakra?' I thought but shrugged it off and nodded.

"Whatever you have in mind better works, because I can't hold him off for much longer."

"It will work, trust me." He said. As if I would normally trust a stranger out of nowhere, but this situation isn't exactly normal now.

I sped off towards the fox and resumed combat, but I gained more wounds over time because I wasn't able to keep up anymore. 'Isn't that guy finished yet… I can't keep this up any longer.' Parrying the claw I jumped back and fell to my knees, panting like a dog that ran across a river with the owner stuck to the cord that got wrapped around his ankle.

Then it happened. Suddenly a large white haired dude appeared behind the male with some kind of blue human shaped energy in front of him. Then an arm came out of Minato's stomach, grabbed the Kyuubi and pulled some kind of red evil looking energy out of him. I thought that this wasn't supposed to happen so I stood up and ran towards the baby.

The red energy went towards the baby but slammed into me as a jumped in front of it at the last second. At first nothing happened, but then I felt an intense burning from my inside. I took every ounce of will power I had not to scream it out. I saw Minato's shocked look, but I couldn't keep standing anymore so I shoved my blade into the ground with my right hand and sunk to my knees. Clutching at my heart I began hyperventilating and sweating all over.

'God…. what… is going… on…'

I was looking at the ground, so I didn't see Minato pulling out a blue energy from the fox and sealing it in the baby. After he had sealed the baby he collapsed, never to see the light of day again.

When I looked back up again, I saw Minato on the ground motionless and the baby bawling his eyes out. When I looked to my right, I saw the red haired woman slumping to the ground as well. Deciding to take the baby over to her I stood up, sheathed my sword and grabbed the baby. Slowly dragging my feet over to the red head, I saw my sight beginning to grow darker and darker.

'I've… got… to… make it!' I yelled in my mind. When I reached the woman, I saw her looking up to me. I couldn't see the expression on her face because it was so dark and I was so tired. I bent over and gave the baby to her before standing back up again. I unsheathed my sword and stabbed it in the ground and began leaning on it.

The last thing I heard where silent footsteps, then some muttering and some old man in weird clothing before the world went dark.

 **Well that's it.**

 **Let me know what you guys think.**

 **Continue or not?**

 **Feel free to PM me, some I could really use some pointers here and there seeing as I have zero experience with writing.**

 **I updated because I found lots of grammar mistakes etc. The next chapter is still in the making, it's well under way and I might finish it this weekend. Then again, I also have to do a grammar sweep ,taking out some mistakes, and maybe fix some parts that might be confusing. (I type my story on the go, I only think up scenario's and I cross my fingers hoping that I don't make the character a Mary Sue...)**

 **That is all I had to say :P**

 **Challas**


	2. From the beginning

**Woah, I underestimated the power of reviews. Reading some of them got my blood pumping and my motivation to write the second chapter went through the roof. Sadly though, school will not allow me to upload on a regular basis. But hell I'll try my hardest to upload as quickly as possible while maintaining the quality of the chapters.**

 **Special thanks to Luscil L L for your super enthusiastic review. The gender of the OC and the name will be revealed in this chapter. I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as you enjoyed the first.**

 **And 7k words for one chapter, that is a lot.**

 **On to the story**

 **Mindscape -**

"Ugh, is this going to be a regular thing?" I grunted.

'Really, waking up with a massive headache every time that I get knocked out tends to get annoying.' As I said that I look around myself.

The place that I woke up in looked like a deserted battlefield, bodies and limbs everywhere. Craters as far as the eyes could see, some of these craters were as big as houses. The sky was a dark gray, almost black with the moon shining through the dust that was in the air.

I took a sniff from the air. 'Hmmm, I don't smell any gunpowder so this must be an old battlefield. Although the smell of blood is very distinct so this doesn't make any sense.'

I started walking around the place, straining every sense that I possess to make sure I don't get ambushed. Looking around myself the scenery did not really change at all. After a while it felt like I was walking in an endless loop. But then I felt something strange, a very angry aura came from my right. It felt like it was ready to rip everything apart and that included me. I couldn't let that thought pass without putting up a decent fight.

And thus I decided to follow the source of the aura. The closer I got the more malevolent it got. It seemed to be coming from something that looked like a military hangar, shrugging my shoulders I began to press forward.

When I stepped foot inside I could hear multiple voices in the distance. Slowly the thought of me being trapped inside a ghost story seemed to becoming more believable by the minute. When I got in front of two gigantic doors with small handles at the bottom, the aura seemed to be the strongest.

"So this is the place, eh? Let's what is behind these doors." I said while motioning my right hand towards the handle of the door. When I tried to open it the doors swung themselves open real fast, making sure I let go off the handle and jump back a little before it could rip my arm out of its socket and slam into my face. When I looked inside I could see a large cell, the size of a small mountain. There was enough space between the bars to fit 2 persons, which means that whatever is behind these bars is gigantic.

"What the hell, do you even fit bro?" I chuckled. I mean really, I walked inside a hangar and when I opened two gigantic ass doors I didn't expect some kind of Harry Potter magic taking place. 'Jeez this world keeps getting weirder and weirder'.

" **You tell me...** " said a voice from behind the bars.

"Uhm total new question, but who the hell are you?" I said as I reprimanded myself for letting my guard down. That will not happen again.

" **Why don't you come over here and find out?** " The voice said sinisterly.

I looked at the bars for a few seconds before shrugging. "Hmm okay, why not." And so I began setting foot inside the bars. Before my reflexes kick in and blocking a …. Claw? Oh… shit not again. Flying back towards the bars I slam into them making everything rumble.

"Ugh… Really did you have to do that?" I grunted while getting back upon my feet, although a bit warily. I should have seen that coming.

" **You're an interesting human, being able to block my attacks. But you don't possess any chakra at all. Tell me what are you? You most certainly look like those monkeys, but yet you lack the energy every being has.** " The sinister voice completely disappeared and a more curious yet feminine voice could be heard.

"My codename is R-001 also known as Reaper Unit 1, I'm the very first of my kind!" I said proudly, completely forgetting that I am talking to a voice of which I still haven't found the source. Yet it could still me.

" **I asked you for your normal name, or does this mean you don't have a name only a number?** " The voice asked curiously.

That got me thinking real hard. 'Hmm, as far as I know I've always been called R-001 or at least R1…. Oh wait I can use the nickname Raiden gave me!'

"You could also call me Kuro Hitsuji."

" **Black Sheep? That is a weird name.** " the voice said.

"I got that name from a friend of mine, he did always say I did the jobs no one else dared to take. Which was weird because as far as I knew those were the only missions I did. But that was because I as ignorant of everything around at that time." I said while looking into the darkness of the cage trying to get used to the little amounts of light.

" **My name is Kurama, human** " said a now most definitely feminine voice from a figure that came walking from the shadows.

Before me stood a beautiful woman in something I think the Japanese call Kimono's. She is about a head shorter than I am, but still quite tall for a woman. She has beautiful scarlet hair with two what looked like fox ears on her head and nine tails behind her. She had a nice round slender figure that most women would be jealous of. And she showed her confidence in the way she walked and approached me with a glimpse in her eyes that I couldn't place.

I gulped knowing whom this person/creature is. "Kurama? That a very feminine name." I awkwardly said, while looking Kurama straight in the eyes.

Suddenly the look in her eyes changed to a emotion that I could place, mirth." **Shouldn't be, it's a guys name!** " ( **A/N: Kudos to the person whom knows this reference.** )

"… I don't know how to react to that…" I mumbled. Who is this person? Why is she a human, I thought there was a gigantic ass fox behind these gates, judging from the claw that attacked me. Is she the fox? It's possible seeing as this world I ended up in have humans fight multiple story tall, what I could define as, demons and weird magic that is able to call upon strange entities. That can apparently take what I guess was a soul from living beings.

Stopping the thought train there I looked up to the girl whom called herself 'Kurama'

" **You know you are really tall for a human, you even grew a bit while you were out. But that is impossible for the human body after they reach a certain age.** " She asked me with a curious look in her eyes while she was seizing me up from head to toe.

"… Let's just say that I have a very special body." Half truth, but I wanted to avoid having to explain all the things my body can do. It's too much of an hassle and I have a feeling that I have to explain myself to someone very important soon.

She just shrugged " **Doesn't matter I will find out on my own then. However human there is one thing that has to be said. By having my sealed into you, your body has begun adapting to my presence by making chakra pathways. This without my influence, although it's going to take a few years a this rate its still staggering that it is able to do that. Which is why I'm going to help it go faster. In about a month your body should have formed all the pathways.** "

I nodded, after seeing all the things chakra could do it would be very advantageous to possess. Maybe I can recreate some attacks I have seen on the TV in my world, they were quite awesome. Although the one I really wanted to recreate takes so long to cast…

"So where am I and why did you attack that village that was near the place we fought?" I asked her. It might be better I get to know more of the world I currently reside in.

After I had asked those questions, Kurama's face became serious and she started " **I did not attack that village on my own accord. Someone who possessed the sharingan had put me under a genjutsu after he had forcefully unsealed me from Kushina, my former jinchuuriki. He forced me to attack the village the humans call Konoha, but the ninja from the village managed to drive me back enough that I couldn't completely enter the village. But that was at the cost of their own lives. After a while the blond man you saw appeared before me and used fuinjutsu to teleport my bijuu-dama away from the village. After that he summoned that asshole of a toad to keep my down so that he could perform another jutsu to teleport me further away from the village. Which I must say is quite the achievement, it must have cost him a lot of chakra. But that's Kushina's husband for you, that man was a genius among humans. After that he had battled me for a while and at the same time he had a clone preparing the seal on the young baby that you protected. Seeing that the clone was preparing something I tricked Minato into thinking I was going to hit him while in reality I had one of my tails going for the baby. But Kushina managed to arrive in time and blocked the tail with the last bits of her strength. The clone had finished preparing the seal and popped itself. This is the moment you arrived and I smacked you in the ground *giggles*. It was quite shocking to see you stand up as if nothing happened to you and even command that you were surprised to have survived an attack that created such a crater with your body. Then we had our fight and eventually Minato managed to summon the Shinigami and tried to seal half of my chakra, which is me right now, inside the baby. But you interfered and managed to get that chakra sealed inside you, you who doesn't even have a chakra system apparently nor a seal prepared to store me. So now it's my turn to ask you a question, how are you not dead yet? Who are YOU?** "

Processing everything she had said, chakra, Konoha, ninja as infantry, sealing, bijuu, jinchuuriki. Kushina was the name of the the red headed female that I could, although barely, see back in the clearing. Nodding to myself I said the following "Thank you for the information. And to answer your questions I don't know why I'm not dead yet. It's just the way it is and I already gave you my name did I not?".

Kurama looked annoyed with the lack of information " **I didn't ask your name dumbass, I wanted to know how you came to be, who you are. Ugh… normal people know what to say when they you ask them this.** "

Nodding to Kurama I said "I'm a super soldier, a genetically modified human being. I possess abilities normal humans do not possess and my muscles are an one of a kind. They possess immeasurable amount of strength and yet they possess enough oxygen to last me 70 percent of a six hour battle. Making me the perfect human soldier. I told you already that my body is very special, but going into detail would take too much time. And it's too much of an hassle."

Kurama blinked " **That... sounds like something Orochimaru would do. But that should still not make it possible for you to be able to go toe to toe with me.** "

Shrugging I said "Well I did do so, you're lucky my memories were all mixed up. Otherwise you would even have scratched me with those claws of yours."

Kurama scoffed " **Dream on human, I'm the Kyuubi no Yoko. The strongest bijuu in existence, I can destroy mountains with a flick of my tail. And even if you blocked that non chakra induced claw I can still use chakra to cut you in half, puny human.** "

So I was right, you can use Chakra to empower your physical abilities. But the question is to what extend? Pushing the boasting fox woman to the back of my mind I started thinking on what would be the best course of action… wait first I'm going to have to find out where the heck I am. Otherwise there won't be any planning now will there. Turning my attention back to the conversation I noticed that Kurama stopped talking, probably a while ago already. "I apologize for not listening but I got one more question for you." Kurama although annoyed paid attention. "Where are we right now, is this the battle field after I lost consciousness or have we warped/teleported to some other place.

" **This is the inside of your mind, and judging from the looks of it. You are mentally instable aren't you?** "

"Uhm… no, what made you think that? And what do you mean with us being inside my mind?" I asked the bijuu.

" **It means what it says, our minds have pulled us back into your mindscape. This is what the inside of your mind looks like, the place you feel most comfortable or the place that shows how damaged your mind actually is. And seeing what your mind looks like you must have seen some crazy shit for it to be this damaged.** "

"Aah that makes a lot more sense, for a second I thought this was the clearing we had our little pow-wow. So that means that when I wake up, I most likely will be in the prison cells or the hospital but heavily guarded." I muttered to myself, already thinking up a strategy for when I would wake up.

" **You are a very scary individual. If you call this normal I wonder what your life looked like but I'm afraid to know as well.** " Kurama said.

Suddenly my vision started blurring and I couldn't see Kurama clearly anymore. I panicked and jumped to my feet and drawing my blade while looking around to see if there is any enemy around, which I later would face palm about seeing as I'm inside my own mind, but seeing no other person around other than Kurama and myself I turned my attention on her. "Are you doing this?"

She shook her head " **No, this means you're waking up in the real world. I hope we can see each other again soon. You're quite intriguing, also don't tell other people that you have talked to me or ever use my real name. Just call me Kyuubi when you're around other people. I don't want anyone else to know my name before they deserved it. Promise me that Kuro.** "

I nodded "It's the least I could do for you after you answered my questions. Until we meet again." I saluted before I completely faded

" **What an interesting human.** "

 **-Inside Kuro's hospital Room-**

Kushina just spent all her time in this room together with Naruto. Waiting for the stranger to wake up from his coma. After waking up in the hospital feeling like shit she knew she was still alive. Most likely because of here Uzumaki heritage, so it only took a few days for her to recover thanks to the some left over chakra from that damn fox.

She doesn't remember much from the battle other than seeing him standing over her with his face shadowed. After he placed Naruto in her arms she lost consciousness, he must have lost his shortly after. Looking up from the blond bundle she turned her gaze towards the stranger in the hospital bed.

The man had shoulder length brown hair that looked quite messy, but not dirty. He had very broad shoulders and a very trained body from what she heard from the nurses. He had quite an handsome face, but there was one large diagonal scare going from his lower right jaw past his right eyebrow, this kind of ruined the whole image a bit. But in the past days she has visited him she saw the scar slowly disappearing.

You could clearly see this man is a trained killer, because every muscle has been trained to the perfect balance between power and stamina. That and the scars that were all over his body, most of them in places where vital organs are located. Meaning he can be very dangerous, but he carried no ill intent towards her judging from him saving her and her son.

She heard that he missed his liver, that the entire organ was blasted to oblivion. That in all rights he should have been dead but something seemed to have taken over the function of said organ making it possible for the stranger to survive. They couldn't figure out what it was and eventually asked a medic-nin to take a look.

That's when the biggest surprise of all came, he had NO chakra. No pathways at all. This raised the question on how it was possible for him to live, every living thing contained chakra. So having no chakra pathways is simply ludicrous and completely illogical.

The events of the past few days raised so many questions, she didn't even have time to mourn Minato yet. How she missed his guidance, his voice and the easy trusting atmosphere he always had around himself. He may not have been a great father but he most certainly was the best leader the village could have ever wished him to be. But he is gone now and left behind a legacy in form of our son.

'I'll raise our son to be the hero you believed him to be. I miss you Minato, I just got you and then you were taken away from me just as quickly. But I promise I will not let you or Naruto down.' A tear slipped from Kushina's right eye as she remembered everything they had been through together, Minato saving her, school, the war and eventually her pregnancy.

While Kushina was lost in her own thoughts, Kuro woke up. Making sure he kept the same pace of breathing he had when he was sleeping he peeked through his eyelids and only saw the red headed woman, Kushina, in the room. When he opened his eyes completely he saw her holding the baby from before. She was crying and had a distant look in her eyes.

' _It seems has not noticed me waking up yet, that's good…. Wait that's weird I can feel the weird energy inside her body, chakra I think Kurama said, flowing through her pathways_ '. Kuro thought as he pushed the headache coming up to the back of his mind.

Kushina suddenly turned her gaze towards him, making him flinch seeing as he has no way to protect himself. His body still isn't ready for fighting, let alone a completely unknown military with powers still beyond him.

"Well good afternoon to you sleepy head." Kushina said. It seems that he is no threat seeing as he has not attacked me. Feeling something wet on her cheeks she wiped it away with her right hand, her left still holding Naruto, and blushing a bit at being caught crying in front of an unknown possible enemy.

"Where am I?" Kuro said while thinking of possible ways he might be able to escape from. But so far it seemed hopeless in his condition, he could feel his body working itself to it's limit to adjust to the chakra of the fox inside his body while restraining it. That must mean that I will die if it gets out, that would be inconvenient. It's either that or she must have something that my body approves of. ' _Ugh… After all these years I still unsure of how my body exactly works._ '

"You are in Konoha, the village hidden in the leaves. But now I want to ask you a question, who are you? You certainly don't seem like those shitheads from Iwa, nor do you look like a blood crazed murderer so Kiri is also out. So are you going to tell me? Kushina asked with barely contained curiosity, her eyes even sparkled while she was talking.

"I'm from another dimension." Kuro said looking her straight in the eyes, he coughed a bit to hide a grunt of pain as he positioned himself to sit in his bed. He continued "I don't know how I got here, all I know is that I had lost my memories when I landed in the forest and from there on just walked. After a while I felt so much killer intent that it drove me to the ground and forced some memories that I then used to run towards the place where I saw a giant fox appear. It seemed to attack a village before it was suddenly teleported away from the village in a flash. I then decided to follow the fox to see what it exactly was. That's when I saw the fox reaching out for the child and I just acted. And the rest… well you know that already."

"A-another Dimension… how is that possible? Did you guys use sealing for this, you know that is forbidden. Everybody does!" Kushina yelled looking at Kuro as if he just committed the worst possible crime possible. If only he knew….

"But" Kushina said after calming down "Thank you for protecting Naruto, if you hadn't done that… I… Naruto wouldn't have a mother right now. For that I'm eternally grateful." She finished bowing her head to Kuro.

"It's the least I could have done miss, at least this is one step closer to repentance for the sins that I committed in my life." Kuro said with respect. Before becoming serious and his eyes began to lose the little light they had in them. "What is going to happen to me?"

Kushina looked a bit startled at that and sighed. "You most likely will be put in jail, it's only because of me being a clan heir that you weren't immediately thrown in jail. You most likely would have recovered if they had done that. But I had to promise the moment that you woke up the deal was over and you were on your own." She said the last bit through gritted teeth. Before looking him in the eyes and became scared, the look in his eyes were telling her that he expected what would happen.

"Thank you for covering for me you saved me from death. So I guess we're even then" Kuro sincerely said. His face devoid of any emotions, the only thing going through his mind was the thought 'Survive'.

Kuro couldn't help but ask "Why are there no guards nearby? I'm considered an enemy, so why is it I don't see or feel any guards around?"

Kushina looked at him as if it were obvious "I'm more than enough to restrain you right now. Seeing as I already recovered from everything, so I'm the guard and caretaker at the sametime".

After she said that Kuro started analyzing her, even with clothes on he could see she was trained. Her arms, though they were slender, you could see the outlining of the muscles. But after looking at her legs he could see she was either a swordswoman or preferred fighting with her legs. Dismissing the latter seeing as her arms are to developed for that fighting style he concluded she is swordswoman. After moving his gaze to her eyes he could see the power radiating behind them and knew that she was right. ' _What an interesting world._ '

"So when are you going to inform your leader of my condition?"

"I already did, he is on his way. But I also said he wouldn't have to worry because I said you weren't acting hostile towards me." Kushina said while stroking Naruto's whiskers. The sleeping baby purred when she did that making Kushina giggle suppressing a ' _Kawai!_ '.

Kuro just nodded and look outside the window taking in his surroundings. He could see the mountain in the distance with four faces on them. When he saw the third face on the mountain he knew whom those people were. He just hoped that he could talk himself out of this and not say something stupid or threaten the people taking care of him. Why didn't they teach him how to talk to people when he was younger. But no they had to send him on _missions_.

After a few minutes the door opened and the old man from his memories stepped through the door with a nurse behind him yelling at him to stop smoking his pipe. Hiruzen just chuckled and walked further into the room before a cold feeling swept over him. He turned his gaze towards Kushina whose hair was levitating behind her and just gulped. He quickly put the pipe away in a puff of smoke and felt the cold feeling pass. ' _Phew… that was to close for comfort._ '

Sarutobi looked the young boy in the eyes and saw something he did not expect from a warrior as strong as him. What he saw in his eyes was something only he held, fighting through more than one war makes you very paranoid. But there is also something else telling him that the boy is not mentally unstable, because he could see that the boy is calculating his chances. Eventually the boy's eyes focused on Hokage and he took a deep breath.

"I'm alright, just minor annoyances." He said flatly. Then he looked around again seeing all the shinobi in the room and Kushina fussing over Naruto. There is one door that is big enough to fit 2 beds through it at the same time. And windows whereas two of them can open up, and their big enough to fit a person through it.

Seeing that he lost the boy's attention already, Sarutobi send his ANBU guards away. He didn't see the boy as a threat, but that didn't mean he will allow the boy to walk around unmonitored. But first he needed to talk to him alone without anyone nearby, he wanted to try if he could hire him as a personal guard. This was a weird thought but the boy didn't show any malice towards any of them, hell he even saved the village in a way by saving Naruto and Kushina. But first he had to interrogate him, because he is an unknown. And unknowns in a village with ninja's just can't coexist but he would be subtle about it. Or at least he think he would.

"Alright young one, are you able to stand on your own feet? I also got your sword in my office, seeing as you are an unknown you can't blame me for take precautions." Sarutobi said receiving a nod from the young man. He kept his eyes on Kuro as he was standing up in his hospital gown. He could see the man was very sturdy, it is almost impossible to train your body to be in perfect balance. But when Kuro's back was turned to him he had to gag a bit, he could see that 90 percent of the man's back is covered in scars. ' _I wonder how he got all of those scars that is more than a veteran Shinobi has.'_

Then a nurse walked in with the man's clothes, but after spotting the boy's back she quickly placed the clothes on a nearby chair. And ran away while holding her mouth. The Hokage looked at the boy's face to see his reaction, but the only thing the boy did is shrug and mumble a small 'Thank you' before disposing of the hospital gown.

Leaving him butt naked…

"KYAAA!" Kushina yelled when she spotted a butt naked Kuro standing a few feet to her right. She ran towards him and just kicked him while the man was trying to grab his clothes from the chair.

He slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the room and slowly slid down back on the ground. He looked at Kushina with one of his eyebrows raised "Are you alright there miss? You should watch out where you are walking or you might just slip like just now." He said with a serious look. "You are holding a baby, need I remind you." He added before resuming his previous task.

' _Why did she do that… fuck everything hurts even more now. I'm glad I didn't lose my cool, I would have most certainly died if I did anything._ ' Kuro thought while putting on the fishnet and black shinobi pants. Luckily his army boots were still intact, he really didn't want to lose those. He got them from Raiden before they both escaped from the base and had to split up. ' _I wonder how he is doing, did he further his relationship with Rosemary. I hope he did, he deserves it with everything he went through. I will carry our sins on my shoulder brother don't worry._ '

Kushinas face was beet red and she turned around with a huff. Not wanting to make eye contact with the man behind her, she focused her attention on Naruto again whom began crying. She cradled Naruto for a minute but he kept on crying and she did feed him already, so why could he be crying?

"He's hungry. I'm ready sir lead the way" she heard Ryan saying. She turned around and could see Ryan standing there with black shinobi pants his weird boots and a fishnet shirt, the one he wore when he fought Kyuubi was torn beyond repair. The fishnet shirt luckily cover the scars enough but did reveal his build. Then she remembered what he said about Naruto being hungry and she quickly excused herself and walked out of the room.

Sarutobi just looked at the entire scene with a smile and a hint of bewilderment.

Then he turned his attention to the task ahead, looking at Kuro he could see he was just waiting for him. "Follow me." Was all he said before walking through the door Kushina just exited through with Kuro walking behind him. ' _He hasn't attacked me yet so that means he is somewhat trustable._ ' He smiled before switching with the shadow clone that was walking in front of Kuro.

When they passed the service desk a voice called out "Hokage-sama, where are you taking the patient. He is not recovered yet!". You could hear the heels coming closer. Kuro turned around spotting an attractive brunette with a scar on her cheeks. When she looked at him she quickly stepped forward and her hand began glowing. All his instincts were telling him to run and cut her down before she could do whatever she planned, but the rational part of his brain overpowered the instincts and he just stiffened a little before relaxing to his previous state.

Hiruzen noticed this and knew the boy had a lot of self-restraint because he could see the look in his eyes change when she came too close. He almost stepped in until he saw that he could handle it and sighed in his thoughts.

"I'm sorry Amane-chan, but this man has to come with me to the tower. So I guess he is relieved from your care." He said smiling kindly to the girl, whom in turn mock glared at the Hokage before smiling back and stopped examinating Kuro. Who in turn sighed aswell, but it went unnoticed by everyone else.

"If you say so Hokage-sama. But …" She turned her head to Kuro ".. he has to take it easy for the coming 2 months. His body was damaged beyond repair for a normal human, but we have a bit of experience with rapid healing. So he should be fine afterwards." Kuro just raised an eyebrow and thought ' _There are more people like me? I thought I was the only experiment to live_.' Amane bowed to the hokage and walked away muttering about too rowdy patients.

The Third just chuckled and motioned for Kuro to follow him. When they stepped outside Kuro could see the village in its full glory. Almost completely destroyed by the Kyuubi, people were already rebuilding and cleaning up broken down houses to make space for new ones.

"It saddens my heart to see my village in this state, but at the same time I'm also very proud to see everyone working together." Hiruzen said hoping for a respons from Kuro. But he received nothing but silence, he mentally sighed and hoped that this boy wasn't just a soldier but an human also. Or this was going to be one hell of a conversation, its troublesome thinking about it.

While the two kept on walking towards the tower Kuro noticed that a lot of people looked at him with curious glances. When he looked up to get a better look of the street he heard some people gasp and whispering "His face… what happened to him…" "Do you think the Kyuubi got him?" "Bullshit, he would be dead if it got him, I heard its chakra is corrosive." After the last whisper he just began to ignore them, thinking they had no idea what they were talking about.

When they arrived at they arrived at the tower a few ANBU jumped out of the shadows and moved to restrain Kuro. Kuro tensed and his eyes darted around measuring up his possible opponents before an hand flew in front of the closest ANBU. "There is no need dog, stand down." The boy/man just nodded and retreated back into the shadows. Kuro kept his guard up just in case, you never know what might jump you next in unknown territory.

"Let's continue on to my office." Kuro just nodded.

 **\- Hokage's office -**

Hiruzen walked over to the desk and sat down, he saw Kuro closing the door behind him. When he turned towards the desk Hiruzen motioned him to sit on the chair infront of the desk. Kuro nodded and walked over to the chair and said down, slightly relaxing his muscles. They still hurt after that fight.

' _I'm not supposed to feel pain anymore, but this pain is unbearable it feels like my muscles are melting just to knit themselves back together again._ ' Kuro thought.

' _ **Well that's because they are breaking down and rebuilding."**_ A sudden voice said.

Although Kuro showed nothing on the outside he was startled by the sudden voice and silently cursed himself for being surprised yet again. This was becoming a bad habit.

' _Kurama?'_

' _ **Hai, it's I the great Ky-'**_

' _Why can I hear you?'_ He interrupted Kurama before she could continue boasting.

' _ **Tch… Ungrateful asshole'**_ she muttered before clearing hear throat.

' _ **That's because we finished your chakra system in your brain, so now we can talk to each other through thought.'**_

' _Alright, so what were saying about my muscles? Why are they breaking down and rebuilding? Is it because of this Chakra you are talking about?'_

' _ **You know, you're smarter than I thought you were. But you are correct it was needed to speed up the process. It should be done tomorrow, when your chakra pathways are complete.'**_

' _That explains the disappearance of the headache, but I thought you said it would take a least a month before I would have chakra.'_

' _ **That is correct, you only have the pathways, the gates are still being build and that will take some time. Even after that it will still take a while for your system to create chakra and even longer before it's usable. Although I have good news as well, you can completely empty your chakra coils and you won't pass out from chakra exhaustion nor will you die. Your body can survive without Chakra just as easily as before. So that is good you don't have to worry about your death when you go overboard.'**_

' _Hn'_

' _ **Is that really everything you have to say? No thank you Kyuubi-sama, I will forever be your slave!'**_

' _Thank you I guess'_ Kuro said awkwardly not really knowing what to think of her behavior. But hearing that he wouldn't be able to fight until tomorrow unnerved him and not having his sword with him made him feel naked. But he was trained to survive in any situation so the loss of his sword, though tragic, is a minor setback. He is just as good with his bare hands. Well that's what he would like to think but he knows he is easier to beat without his sword than with. A weakness he still has to take care of.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a cough from Hiruzen. He scolded himself and turned his attention to the man sitting behind the desk. The man smiled and asked him who he was. "The name is R-001, but people also call me Kuro Hitsuji."

"And why do they call you that?"

"Because I work in the dark and do the dirty jobs that no one may know about. In a sea of white sheep I'm the operative in black."

"So you are ANBU?"

"Sorry, but what is an ANBU? The people with the weird masks?"

"I'm going to be blunt, are you going to be a threat to my village" The Third asked leveling him with a gaze that promised death if he answered incorrectly.

"No, that I am not."

"Then talk." Hiruzen used a few handseals, activating the privacy seals surrounding the office. He looked at the ANBU in the shadows sending the silent message that everything spoken of here will remain inside the room. He personally chose these ANBU knowing they aren't Ne is disguise.

Kuro sighed and knew that whatever he said here could change his fate. He knew that there was no way of going back to his previous dimension, not that he wanted to. So he could just tell the man everything

"I'm not from this world, I am most likely from another dimension that is not even parallel to this one. So I'm basically homeless, but I came from a world devastated by wars. Wars I took place in since I was 6 years old. I have done a lot of morally wrong things, sins that I cannot escape from."

Hiruzen just nodded storing the information about a different dimension in the back of his mind. That was the only explanation about him not having a chakra system.

"I'm made. I am an artificial human designed to be the ultimate soldier. My genetics exist out of the best genetics found in living beings while keeping my human looks intact. They even made it possible for my body to make nanomachine-like tissue. It can freely travel throughout my body, harden at will and even subconscious sometimes. So even the inside of my body is practically indestructible but that is only when I will it to. If I'm surprised then I will take the damage. They can even takeover the function of an organ till it is repaired. But this will mean that I only have a little bit of that tissue left to defend myself with. Even my mind and brain were affected. I can process more information than anything alive. My mind is made to withstand any torture, be it physical or mental. My eyes can if trained track high-speed movements, but up until now nothing was fast enough for me to lose sight of it. That is about everything in general."

Hiruzen just rubbed his temples and remained silent for a few minutes. Taking in everything that Kuro had just told him. So he is a genetically modified super soldier that kind of scared him a bit. But said he wasn't a threat and he didn't seem to be lying.

Kuro could read the internal discussion on the Thirds face and said "I'm not a threat. It is of no use to me to make you my enemy. I'm in a different world and thus unexperienced with the way of combat here. It would be in my best fortune to just try out my luck where I currently am."

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at that "So you want to become a part of my army. Tell me why I should trust you amongst my ranks? You could be lying to my face right now even though you seem sincere with what you are saying."

"I have not attacked anyone, I helped in a fight I had nothing to do with. But I can see where you are coming from Hokage but I'm afraid the only thing I can hope for is that you will believe me."

Hiruzen just looked at Kuro as if he has grown another head. He was being bluntly honest with me and not beating around the bush. He let out a long breath and said "I know and I'm grateful for that. But I can't in good conscious allow an unknown soldier in my ranks without any reinsurance that that soldier doesn't mean harm to my village or its people."

Kuro looked to be in deep thought when he suddenly locked his gaze with the Third again "Well I heard Kushina talking about Sealing and she looked angry about it. She probably thought that I travelled through space and time by sealing means. Even though she is wrong it raises a possibility for that insurance. If It can seal gigantic foxes inside people than it should also be possible-"

Standing around Kuro were 2 ANBU swords at his jugular ready to slice it if given a reason to. When Kuro looked at Hiruzen he could see the steel gaze he was giving him. _'Shit have I said something bad? Where did I go wrong?'_.

"How do you know about the sealing? I thought you were inexperienced with the ways things are done around here?"

"I just connected the dots, the rest was easy to figure out. I tried to protect the baby from the red haze that was flying towards him but it entered me instead of him."

Kuro said with a steel face of his own.

The old man just rubbed his temples again and motioned for the ANBU to move away. But the ANBU were frozen stiff, ' _He has… the Kyuubi?! But how! I thought Naruto had him sealed inside him. They even confirmed it, so how come this man claims he has it sealed inside him.'_. After a few seconds the ANBU recovered and retreated back into the shadows.

"A few seconds after I got hit by the red haze my body began to burn from pain. As if someone had thrown me in an acid bath and injected it through my veins. I recovered after a few seconds, still feeling the intense pain but baring it, I saw another haze going towards the child. Even though I was in front of the child I could not stand up and it entered the child." Kuro explained seeing the expression of the Hokage and he could feel the doubt radiating from the ANBU in the corners.

"So you have one half of the Kyuubi sealed inside you. Well as stupid as this decision will be, we can't lose a Jinchuuriki to any other nation. And we have no way of extracting it without it being released. So count yourself lucky with that but you will be under surveillance until I deem you trustworthy Kuro."

Kuro looked at him and nodded but then he remembered something. "Hokage-sama, thank you for this opportunity I will not disappoint you. If you must you can use a seal to reassure yourself that you have some reinsurance if I ever tend to stray from the path."

The Third looked up at that with wide eyes and mentally slapped himself for not thinking of that before. But this also went against his principles in a way, using a seal to make sure that your underling stays loyal feels like a bad apple stuck inside his throat. But to make sure that he has some kind of leverage over the boy he must use it even though he would be no different than the Hyuuga clan. "Alright, I arrange a sealing a week from now. But before that I will have to teach you a bit about the ranking system we use here. So that you know whom your superiors are and how missions rating works."

After explaining the system to Kuro the Hokage opened a drawed and reached for a scroll that was inside of it. He fumbled a bit with the rope muttering about old age and all that. After he opened it he put his hand of what Kuro guessed was a seal and suddenly his sword popped onto the table. You could hear the table groaning under its weight and he quickly motioned him to pick it up. He hesitated at first, but he just nodded and grabbed the sword with his right hand. He looked at it and saw that everything was in place and put his sword around his belt, it almost touched the ground being so long. But Kuro was long enough to make it impossible for it to touch the ground.

Suddenly Hiruzen placed a weird headband with the sign in front of him. He had seen that sign on every ninja he saw and guessed it was a uniform requirement. When he moved to pick it up Hiruzen said "Welcome to my ranks Kuro Hitsuji, Genin of Konohagakure no Sato. I hope that you will carry the will of fire and the headband with pride. Your sensei will meet you tomorrow in my office at 9 a.m. For now Dog will bring you to your temporary home and will stay on guard to make sure you don't do anything that would be frowned upon. Now go, I have more business to take care of."

Kuro just nodded and turned around seeing the ANBU named 'Dog' standing at the door motioning to follow him. So many questions were still left unanswered but for now Kuro has a way to survive and maybe even a place to call home. He will find the answers to his questions eventually, but for now things seem to be going alright. Even if he has to start at the bottom of the ladder and climb his way up to earn the trust and respect. But first he needed to clear his head of everything that has happened since he arrived and plan out how he will reach the spot he is most used to: Working Solo and in the dark.

With that Kuro followed the ANBU to his home.

 **Well that took a while didn't it?**

 **I can't really say I had a writer's block as it was more of a lack of time and confidence in my own abilities. Mainly because of my inexperience and stubbornness of wanting to upload a decent chapter (And maybe a bit of perfectionism.)**

 **I am in high need of a beta who can pre read my chapters and point and little mistakes that I myself overlook. Being it grammar or going out of character maybe even point out a few flaws that I might make with theories that I come up with.**

 **Anyways thank you all for reading this chapter, I know it was a bit boring compared to the last one. But I had to set the stage for Kuro and I know it him becoming Gennin is a bit strange. But that is because he has no idea of how this world works, is not completely trustworthy in the eyes of the leader, that and the lack of experience.**

 **Feel free to PM me!**

 **Leave a review if you like and I'll see you all in the next chapter.**

 **Challas,**

 **Ryusen**


	3. The First Mission!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Kuro.**

 **After unofficial hiatus**

 **Sorry, that's the first thing I want to say. A lot of stuff has happened and it made me focus my attention on other things. By doing that I also lost motivation and only recently started reading fanfics again and thinking about continuing this one.**

 **Another thing I am looking for a way for you guys to talk to me aswell, by either creating a YT channel or creating a twitter account. Let me know you guys! I do stream from time to time on Twitch.**

 **Before unofficial hiatus**

 **Thanks for the reviews everyone!**

 **I'm excited for this chapter as I've received great criticism from a friend of mine. He pointed out some very important details that I overlooked and it opened up a whole new way of writing for me. But it will take a while for me to fully grasp it though. This chapter I'll be paying extra attention to those details and I hope that you will all notice what it is, but don't feel obliged to find out.**

 **Also the chapter will be a bit slow paced, but this is because I wanted you guys to know a bit more about the kind of person Kuro is.**

 **Well I hope you will enjoy the story!**

After having said his goodbye to the ANBU Dog who apparently had silver hair although how he didn't take notice of that before surprised even him. It is not every day that you see a human with silver hair as his or her natural hair color.

Observing his living room, there was a simple table next to the kitchen with 2 chairs on either side; the kitchen itself only had the necessary items that you would expect to see in every kitchen. That is a fridge, a sink and some space left over for cutting the food. There were a few drawers above the sink for spices and such; furthermore the trashcan was beside the fridge. So, all in all, it was a very simplistic kitchen, nothing too fancy.

There were 2 doors on the other side of the room, most likely the bedroom and the shower. Kuro opened the door on the left and saw that this was indeed the bathroom. There was a sink with a mirror on the wall and a small platform upon which to put your toothbrush, razor blades and such. Then there was a plain looking toilet across from the sink and in the back of the room was a surprisingly nice bathtub with a showerhead.

Inside the other door was the bedroom with a simple wooden bed, a closet and a nightstand. On the nightstand was a simple lamp and an empty photo frame, so he'd have to buy an alarm clock seeing as his body is disoriented from the travel and his recovery in the hospital.

He walked back into the living room, sat down on a chair and began to think about the situation which he had gotten himself into. First, there was the problem with the foxgirl that was apparently residing in his body. She had attacked the village but not of her own free will; someone had forced her to attack the village. So there was an enemy that was strong enough to influence her in a way that rendered her unable to think rationally. That could cause him problems later, especially as he was not supposed to be there. The man had planned on Kushina dying most likely. Word probably got out that Kushina had survived and as soon as the man takes notice of this, things will go south again. But there is little he could do about it at the moment, he has absolutely no influence in this world at the moment.

Deciding that speculating about future events would be a waste of time he stood up and went outside to explore the streets and find a shop that sells an alarm clock. He was never told that he couldn't go outside, the Hokage most likely has his ANBU following him all the time. At least he hopes that the leader is smart enough to do so, not that he would do anything to endanger himself by doing something he was not supposed to. So when he entered the remaining shopping district that was surprisingly not devastated by the attack, he observed the streets and noticed that he wasn't getting anywhere by just looking and entered the first store which he encountered.

The owner of the shop looked up and was surprised that someone had walked inside at this time of day. "Welcome to my humble shop." he greeted before returning to his orange book, not caring at all that he never received an answer as Kuro was already looking around the shop for an alarm. When he spotted a cheap alarm clock, he counted the amount of money he would have left and decided to buy some groceries from the left over money. He might have a very unique and strong body, but he still needs his nutrients like any other organism. He placed the alarm clock which he wanted to buy on the counter, scaring the shit out of the shop owner who blushed when he looked up to the indifferent gaze that Kuro blessed the man with. "That will be 2000 ryo, sir." the man said, a bit intimidated by the tall broad man in front of him. Kuro gave the man the money for the alarm clock and walked away without saying anything. The shop owner frowned at this but remained silent, not wanting to cause any trouble seeing as the man had paid for the alarm clock.

Kuro stood outside the shop and decided to ask someone where the grocery store is. When he noticed a group of girls, most likely around his age, he walked over to them. When the brunette of the group noticed Kuro walking towards them, she motioned her friends to turn around. When they turned around, they only saw a fishnet shirt that didn't manage to hide the muscles underneath. The girls blushed at that and when they looked up at the face that belonged to that stomach, they noticed just how tall (and muscular) this stranger was. They all took a step backwards to get a better view of Kuro who just observed the reaction of the girls. He learned that as long as they don't turn red, you could start a conversation because it meant that they were angry and you had to proceed with caution.

So he chose to remain silent and this made the encounter very awkward for the poor girls who didn't know how to react to this stranger walking up to them. The brave one of the group gathered up the courage and asked: "Hello, can we uhm… help you?"

Kuro nodded, thinking that he had made the right choice and asked them where the grocery store is. "But aren't you wearing a headband of our village? You don't know where the grocery store is?" the blonde of the group inquired, thinking that this was all just a bad excuse for the man to talk to them.

"I've been out of the village for a long term mission. I had done something that I shouldn't have a long time ago and as punishment, I was given patrol duty for a long time." Kuro stated, thinking that was a solid enough reason for his not knowing where the store currently is. But this just made the girl even more suspicious.

"So you had patrol duty while there was a war not even a year ago? That is awfully strange as the Hokage stated that the borders were patrolled by Ninja's of the rank of Chunin or higher."

"That is correct; as I said- it was _punishment._ " This was said with a straight face not showing any emotion whatsoever.

The subtle hint was suddenly clear to the girls and they took pity on the man. The Hokage, no matter how nice he may seem, was still a leader and a very strict one at that. The Third had changed a lot since the Fourth had taken over the mantle; it seemed that the old man took over the strictness and absolute authority that the Fourth had possessed. It was a good thing that he did! After what that monster had done to the village, they needed a good leader since they had lost their Hero to the beast.

"Uhm, we could show you if you want us to, shinobi-san." the brunette offered, hoping that it would take away the awkward silence. When she received a nod, she turned around and began to walk in the direction of the store. The group stared at their friend for a second before Kuro passed them, following the girl. The group followed shortly thereafter, wondering where this guy came from and what story he carried. They could see that his arms had a lot of scars on them, probably from the war he was fighting. He probably had to remain a Genin because of the punishment, but at least he wasn't sent out to his death anymore. What he had done to receive the punishment is not for civilians to know; they knew that much.

When the group arrived at the store, Kuro thanked them for their help as he had learned from observing people interacting. After he was done shopping, he went straight to his home and unpacked the groceries and put them where they belonged.

He placed another small bag on the table and sat on the chair facing the bedroom. Unpacking the bag there were 3 items: a can of black paint, a can of white paint and a piece of wood. He crumpled the bag and threw it into the garbage can; afterwards he unsheathed the sword and began carving the wood.

When he looked outside the window to check the time, he guessed that it was around 10 PM already and he decided to cook a simple meal. After eating it, he took the alarm clock with him to the bedroom and placed it on the nightstand, setting the alarm for 7 A.M. as he still had to recover from everything that had happened. A good night's sleep might help speed up his recovery. When the alarm was set, he unsheathed his blade and stabbed it into the ground of the bedroom and leaned against it; closing his eyes, he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Kuro woke up an hour before his alarm and turned it off. He sheathed his sword and frowned at the stab in the wood; maybe he should just keep sleeping on the same spot. He didn't want to mess the floor up too much by having holes everywhere. He walked into the living room and began making a simple breakfast. When he was done eating, he grabbed some gear together and went outside. He still had 2 hours before the appointment with the Hokage. Seeing that it was better to get more acquainted with the village, he decided to roam around and observe.

When he got to a worksite where people were already rebuilding the destroyed houses, he decided to help out a bit. He saw a few construction-workers struggling with moving a big support pillar and he helped them out by lifting it onto his shoulders with little effort. This show of brute strength surprised the workers and they nodded in appreciation.

"Where do you want this?" Kuro asked, looking at the nearest man.

"Could you bring it to the big building at the end of the street? The passage was too narrow for the cart to fit through." the man said with a sigh.

Kuro nodded and helped the workers out until 5 minutes before his appointment with the Hokage. He jogged up to the building and when he was about to enter it, the same ANBU from yesterday appeared in front of him, but this time, Kuro was expecting someone to show up so he wasn't surprised.

"Come with me." 'Dog' motioned Kuro to follow him. Kuro obliged and silently followed the man while sizing him up. ' _It seems that he is quite young, but he is in no way a pushover judging from the lean alethic body that the boy has. He must be around 14 years old and already in the black ops unit.'_. He also took notice of the boy having gray spiky hair and took a mental note of it. It might give him some clue to figure out exactly who this person is. Information is power after all; it doesn't matter where you live. If you know the right information and have the right recourses, you can become whatever you want to be.

Suddenly 'Dog' came to a halt and Kuro immediately halted as well. 'Dog' took notice of his posture and smiled a bit. ' _He is a lot like me._ '

The door opened and 'Dog' marched inside with Kuro following right behind him. When 'Dog' took a step to the side, Kuro walked up, saluted the Hokage and stood firm. The Hokage raised an eyebrow at this, but chalked it up to other military traditions than they were used to and addressed Kuro.

"Welcome Hitsuji-san. This man next to me is Inoichi Yamanaka. He will be your sensei until you become Chunin; he will also be keeping an eye on your behavior and will be the judge of your evaluation. We will not, however, put a loyalty seal on you. Seeing as you were the one to suggest it, I am willing to take the risk, but don't let that go to your head, understood?"

"Sir!" Kuro answered like an ordinary soldier does in front of a superior.

"Alright, now onto the next part that I wanted to talk about. I won't have you doing any D-rank missions right now because we have enough unexperienced Genin for that task. No, you will be doing C-rank or higher missions starting with the escorting of a merchant to a town near the border between Iwa and the Land of Fire. Any questions?" Sarutobi asked.

"Only one, sir."

"Alright, ask away."

"Could you seal up the room please? The ANBU, however, can stay and by that, I'm talking about 'Dog'." Kuro said, looking the Hokage in the eyes without a single shred of uneasiness.

The Hokage made a quick motion with his right hand and after that the anbus left. He made a few handseals thus activating the privacy seals in the office. 'Dog' remained next to Kuro, whilst Inoichi remained next to the Hokage, just observing.

Kuro took notice of this and took note that his sensei was close to the Hokage. He dismissed further suspicions as it is not his place to doubt his fellow comrades nor the leadership in the village. Judging from how the girls from yesterday had acted, he could see that they believed in the current Kage enough to be smiling.

"I would like to ask a few questions regarding Kyuubi and Naruto Uzumaki."

This brought a frown on Hiruzen's face, and he silently motioned Kuro to just ask away. He would not be revealing any precious intel regarding Kushina and Naruto if he could help it. The man already knew too much and had him cornered by having a part of Kyuubi sealed inside himself as well.

"Have you informed the villagers and the rest of the Shinobi about what happened that night? By that I mean have you told them about Naruto and the part of Kyuubi that resides in him?"

"No, not yet. I was planning on doing that sometime this week. But I had to sort things out first before I got atound to explaining to them that their Hokage, in fact, did not kill the Kyuubi, but sealed it inside a baby. I just hope that they will not see the scroll for the Kunai that is sealed inside it." The Hokage sighed at the last bit; he knew that they most likely would not. But they at least deserved to know the truth, even though this will make the village dislike Kushina and Naruto even more.

"Don't tell them about Naruto; rather tell them that the Fourth chose me as a sacrifice for the Kyuubi. Humans are very ignorant and easily afraid of the things that they do not understand. We are stupid creatures that just about know the difference between salty water and it's counterpart. They WILL hate and despise Naruto; in hindsight, they will also hate Kushina. This will result in events that you'd probably be able to imagine and I can't have that. I might be a cold blooded killer, but I'm still only human. There is only so much abuse a person is able to take before they change for either good or bad. That is my only request, sir. Also do not tell Uzumaki-san about this; it is better that she doesn't know about this at all."

"Are you sure about this Hitsuji-san? You know that the same thing will happen to you as it would to Naruto, right?" 

"I am aware of that, yes. But I don't need acknowledgement from anyone; I am a lone wolf after all."

"Alright, then I shall do what you requested, Hitsuji-san. Just don't let it swallow you into the pits of darkness. You have the potential to become a great man, but you still have a ways to go." Sarutobi Hiruzen said. Kuro scored a few points with this sacrifice and he will honor it in return; he just hoped that it would not separate the man from the joys of life even further. He seems to carry a lot of burdens already; adding this to it all won't be easy. He might be a strict leader but he was also the father to several children, of which only one remains alive. He would not want to see his son carrying the same burdens that this man carries; it would break his old and feeble heart. He still loves his son, even if they disagree on multiple matters.

"Sir!" Kuro clacked his heels in affirmation.

"Alright Hitsuji-san." Inoichi's voice interrupted the silence. "I will be evaluating you and I am to be your sensei. I know that you are inexperienced with our ways of combat, but I'm not the type to teach you combat. This C-rank will most likely only have bandit attacks, so there won't be any Shinobi involved. But if it were to happen and the odds are against us, we are to defend the client with our lives, understood?" he explained.

"Affirmed sir!"

"Good, now Hokage-sama, if you would be so kind as to dispel the seals and let the client in." 

"You know Inoichi, it would not be a good thing to show this kind of behavior towards me in front of the new Genin." the Hokage suggested.

"Sir, this will not make me think any less of your authority. You are my superior, the person I answer to and oblige, regardless of the order." Kuro stated with conviction. Spoken like a perfect soldier. No matter who the superior officer is, he is to be obeyed.

The Hokage sweatdropped as did Inoichi. ' _He isn't much of a joker, is he?_ ' they both thought.

A minute later, the client walked inside the office as did the ANBU, but they went by the merchant unnoticed and the Hokage introduced the client to the shinobi. "Tomohiro-san, these are the shinobi that will be escorting you. I wish you safe travels and hope that you will return to us the next time that you need something." he said in a businesslike tone, not really caring if the client came back seeing as all missions went through the Daimyo first before the village received them. This is unreasonably stupid, but it is the way things work around here.

Inoichi stood in front of the merchant after a quick Shunshin and offered his hand. "The name is Yamanaka Inoichi, Jonin of Konohagakure. I, together with my student Kuro Hitsuji, will be the ones to escort you to your destination."

Kuro only observed; he was not instructed to say anything so he will not say anything. It is better to observe than being the person who is being observed. As he took in the form of the client, he noticed that it was a black haired female with a nice curve line and a moderate chest. She would be considered attractive by everybody sans Kuro as he doesn't really care about looks or females in general. He only has one thing that he is focused on and the rest does not matter. All that matters to him is the mission and his comrades returning home safely; that is what he and Raiden had sworn an oath to. They can only break that oath when they really believe that what they were ordered to do would result in severe backlash or useless violence. Useless violence is basically what all the raiders do, even if they do have a 'good' goal which they strive for. Raping men, women and children is unnecessary and uncalled for in all situations. If that were to happen on this mission, he would make an example of these bandits for the whole world- if Inoichi allowed him to that is.

"Thank you for your help Yamanaka-san. I'm counting on you and your…" When she looked over to Kuro her eyes widened and she gulped. Kuro was looking at her with his normal steely gaze; it gave him quite the dangerous look even if it wasn't on purpose. She recovered after a second "… student. "Does he always give that look when the clients look at him?" the client said, a bit unnerved by the continuous stare from Kuro.

"This is how I always look. Is there a problem with that, Miss? Would you like me to change my expression?" Kuro asked formally. The same story as always. Why do people get unnerved and afraid of him when he isn't even trying? Hell, they don't even know him. ' _Do I really look that intimidating? I know I'm a bit on the tall side compared to everyone else here._ '

' _ **Well, to be honest, you have a very intimidating presence for a human. I'm a Nine Tailed Kitsune and the first time that I looked into your eyes, not counting the time that we fought, I had a slight uneasiness in my chest. Don't be proud of that though; I can still kick your ass!**_ '

Kuro's gaze remained passive and on the merchant even when he answered Kurama. ' _Hmm, that is convenient and inconvenient at the same time. But it's better if I keep it like this, it makes the story of having Kyuubi sealed inside me a lot more convincing._ '

' _ **I'm right here and I can hear you so please just use my name if you're talking about me. I gave it to you for a reason, so use it.**_ ' Kurama ordered/said, depends on how intimidated you are by the heaviness the voice carried with itself.

Kuro, however, was not fazed, having felt her Killer Intent when they clashed. ' _I got a question I wanted to ask you._ '

' _ **Go ahead.**_ '

' _Well I noticed that when Uzumaki-san was angry, her hair started floating in nine separate 'tails'. Is this a side effect of your stay in her body before you got unsealed? Or is this natural for her because the coincidence is quite uncanny._ '

' _ **Yes, it is a side effect, but it only appeared in her and not in Mito. So I guess you can say that the side effects differ between hosts. I could ,however, given the freedom to, apply changes to DNA strings and add or remove certain bits.**_ '

All of this time whilst Kuro was talking with Kurama, the client and Inoichi were talking about the road that they would be traveling on and how much cargo Tomohiro-san was transporting.

' _I know that this is going to sound weird, but can you let's say, make my breath that I exhale appear to be red and my eyes red? I'd prefer them like yours, with the slits and everything.'_ Kuro asked Kurama.

' _ **I can, but why would you want that?**_ '

' _Intimidation purposes._ ' was all that Kuro said, not giving much information about the reason why.

' _How is the progress on my chakra system going?_ '

' _ **You have all the pathways and necessary tenketsu; you might have noticed the lack of pain in your body. It will still take a while before the last gate is developed enough to produce chakra. The rest can carry chakra already, so if a medic Ninja would pump chakra in your body, you'd be able to use it.**_ ' Kurama answered.

Kuro thanked Kurama and brought his attention back to Inoichi and Tomohiro who had just finished talking over the details of the mission. "We'll be leaving right now. Kuro, do you have all the required gear with you?"

Kuro nodded, motioning to the small bag on the side of his belt. Noticing Inoichi's stare, he said "Carrying too much weighs me down and I can survive on small amounts of food. I have no other way to carry stuff with me; a big bag would be more of a hindrance rather than a bonus."

Inoichi could agree on that but still mentioned "You could always use a storage seal to store away rations and such."

Kuro looked surprised at that and noted that he should find some books about sealing. It seems so utterly fascinating. He wondered if he was allowed to visit the library or a book store before leaving on the mission. He could read about sealing on their way to the village. He could also take a map of this region with him; it might improve his view of this world if he actually knew what it looked like. "Is there a possibility of us stopping by a book store or library before we depart? I'd like to purchase a map and a book about sealing."

Inoichi nodded "I could see no harm in that but it depends on Tomohiro-san. If she is willing to let you stop by real quick before departing, then it's all good."

"Inoichi-san, please just call me Sora. I feel so old when you call me Tomohiro-san." Sora pouted cutely at Inoichi who in turn, managed to hide a blush from Sora, preventing further teasing on her part. "But I see no problem in that."

"Then follow me, Sora-san, Kuro." Inoichi walked out of the office with Sora right behind him. Kuro saluted the Hokage and marched out of the door right behind Sora.

When the door was closed, the Hokage rubbed his temples and sighed. "Well, time to go back to the damned paperwork. Minato, why did you have to do the sealing? Now I have to endure this torture all over again. Maybe Kushina is willing to take over?" Hiruzen shuddered at that thought. "That might be the worst idea that I have ever had."

 **\- Back with Kuro -**

When Kuro stepped inside the Library, he immediately observed the place. There were several stories, 3 in total and on the base floor were the civilian books, on the first floor and up were the shinobi books. The first floor was for Genin, the second floor was for Chuunin and the last floor was for Jonin.

Inoichi and Sora remained outside, seeing as they had nothing to do in there. So Kuro decided to ask the man behind the desk for books about sealing. The man nodded and showed Kuro the bookcase regarding Sealing. It appears that sealing isn't restricted to Chunin or higher; everyone could learn it. From sealing for beginners to sealing for the more advanced sealers, which is weird, seeing as sealing shows a lot of promise already. This must have meant that the subject is not often studied by other shinobi. ' _Must be a hard subject then. I wonder how fast I'll be able to get a decent hang of it._ '

' _ **Don't count on it, human. It may look simple, but to humans, sealing is quite a difficult art to master. Even for us Kitsune, it is quite a challenge. Sealing is able to bend the rules of space and time without consequence, IF done correctly. But don't let it go to your head; it's still a very dangerous art. The seal that Minato used for me is a true masterpiece. Even I with all my knowledge can't even begin to decipher it.**_ '

' _We'll just have to see. I'm not able to make any seals anyways. I don't have the chakra to activate them and I'm not going to use my teacher as a test dummy._ '

After getting the books that he needed, he walked over to the service desk and got all the registrations filled out. After he left the building, he noticed that Inoichi was as red as Kushina's hair and Sora had a very amused grin on her face.

"I'm back so we can go now. They had a map there so we won't have to go to the store." Kuro said, still looking at the scene before him with indifference. He didn't really care about what the two of them were talking about.

"Alright… let's go." Inoichi said in a high pitched voice. He really needed to get away from this woman; she was too much of a tease. She didn't even regard the mention of him having a wife already; she just kept on teasing him.

"Aahw, aren't you a cute one Inoichi- _kun?_ " Sora teased and gave him a wink before walking past him.

Kuro just looked at Inoichi, who was still blushing, but quickly followed Sora. He wanted to sigh but held it in and just followed his two travelling companions. When they stepped outside the gate, Kuro walked on the left side of the carriage and Inoichi on the right side. Kuro was reading his book about sealing and Inoichi was just looking around. Sora was positioned on the carriage and was glancing at Kuro every now and then. The surroundings were nice and quiet, except for the hoofs of the horses that clattered on the path every now and then. Every time that Sora made eye contact with Inoichi, she would give him a wink and giggle when the man got a red face.

When the sun was beginning to set, Inoichi gave the order to set up camp. Kuro helped with setting up the tents and lifting the heavy boxes inside the main tent where both he and Sora would reside. Kuro would be on guard through the night while Sora would be sleeping behind him; Inoichi would take over at 2 A.M. so they would both get about 5 hours of sleep. Well, Inoichi would be getting a bit more, but that didn't matter to Kuro. He could go on for a few weeks without sleep, and for months with his meditating every 2 weeks.

When everyone had a tent to sleep in, Kuro went out in the forest. Inoichi noticed Kuro walking away from camp and decided to send a shadow-clone after him. He might not mind the man after what he had said about Kushina and Naruto in the Hokage's Office, but he'd be damned if he'd let his guard down that quickly. He had made it through the war for a reason; it was not just luck.

Kuro looked around the forest and suddenly crouched. He took a kunai from his pouch and twirled it around his finger. When he looked up from the bush, he saw the boar that he had spotted a minute before. ' _Alright, dinner._ ' He threw the kunai through the skull of the boar into the boulder behind it and sighed. ' _Well, that was the end of that Kunai._ '

He threw the boar over his right shoulder and carried it back to camp. Just before he was about to return to camp, he remembered that they needed some firewood. So he laid the boar on the ground and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. ' _Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Ryusösen._ '

The sword and arm of Kuro became a blur and the moment that he had sheathed his sword, the tree fell down in multiple logs. He straightened his back and gathered the logs so he could pick them up when he returned, but first he had to bring the boar back to the campsite.

When he arrived at the campsite, he noticed that only Inoichi remained outside and Sora appeared to be inside the tent. Kuro nodded to Inoichi who looked a bit stupefied at Kuro carrying the corpse of a boar on his shoulders, seemingly without strain. Having dropped the boar to the ground, he left to get the firewood that he had just cut.

At the same moment, the Kage Bunshin that Inoichi had summoned earlier dispelled and Inoichi's eyes went wide. The sword style that the boy had just used was insanely powerful; his eyes couldn't keep up with the speed that the sword was swinging. That was unheard of; he could even bet that the Sharingan wouldn't be able to keep up if not fully matured and even then, it would still remain a blur. It all became clear to him now why Kuro was so relaxed when he had arrived at the office. ' _He is far stronger than I am if he wields his sword. If he aims to learn, I'd have to confiscate his sword for the duration of this mission. I just hope that he won't take it in a bad way; he is already far more powerful with his sword than I am with 4 chakra gates opened._ '

When Kuro returned with the firewood and had placed it on the ground, Inoichi walked over to him. "Uhm, Hitsuji-san, would you mind if I took your sword for the duration of this mission? My clone saw what you did to that tree and to that boar with sheer muscle power and I deemed it better for you if I confiscated the sword, so that you could learn our way of combat without utterly destroying your opponent."

Kuro sent a questioning gaze at the man, but after a few seconds he relented. He might be a cold-hearted soldier, but he loves his sword and can't sleep without it, even if that sounds stupid. But, if he wants to learn how everything works, he'd have to sacrifice. "That is okay, sir. Here, take good care of her." He unlatched the sword from his belt and offered it to inoichi, who In turn, nodded and sealed the sword in a scroll. Even though he didn't like it, Kuro could not refuse a superior's order, especially not now when they didn't trust him.

Kuro gathered the wood together and made a campfire. When the fire was burning nicely, he began on the boar. When he had the skin detached from the rest and the innards taken out, he began to cut the meat up into pieces and cooked them.

Smelling the food, Sora stepped outside of the tent. She appeared to be wearing sleeping attire consisting of pants and a tanktop which revealed her slender arms and moderate chest. "Smells good. Where did you get the meat? I thought we didn't bring any with us?" she curiously asked Kuro who in return just pointed at the skin of the boar and the innards that were laying next to it. Sora gulped and laughed nervously at the sight of the leftovers. "Stupid question."

When the food was done, Kuro gave everyone a bit of meat and asked Inoichi if he could seal the food so that it would stay conserved. Inoichi nodded and asked "How did you know that it would stay edible for a longer duration when it's sealed?"

"I read it in my book today; storage seals don't affect the state of the product that is sealed inside. So if my guess is correct, food inside a pocket dimension will not cool of or rot." Kuro answered Inoichi.

"That is correct. You are a quick learner, Hitsuji-san."

"It is what I was made for, after all. Adapt and evolve, become the strongest and all that." Kuro said dismissively, thinking little about this achievement. The theory in the books was a bit difficult but very precise; it seems that whoever wrote this really knew what they were talking about. The author of the book had Uzumaki as a last name; he might have to research a bit more on the man. It seems that Uzumaki is a clan specialized in sealing, as all of his other books are written by the same people with Uzumaki as their last name.

Sora's head perked up at the 'made' part and couldn't help but ask "What do you mean by 'made for'?"

"I am not born of natural cause; I'm artificially put together. Destined to be a soldier even before birth." Kuro said, not thinking about the consequences that releasing this kind of information might have. Even for someone who is supposed to be highly intelligent, he lacks the social skills of a normal person. As long as it can't hurt him, he doesn't care about what he says.

Sora's face was the definition of disgust. "So _Konoha_ is not as kind hearted as they like themselves to be viewed as. Should have known that you can't trust any Ninja village at all, they are all about power." she said in disgust, but became confused when Kuro just stared at her.

"It was not Konoha that made me. They were the ones that took a monster like me in, giving me yet another chance to redeem myself from all of my sins. Even though I didn't know better at the time, I know now that what I have done is bad. Raiden made sure of that; he showed me the errors of my ways. Ever since then I have been trying to search for the person that I really am, not the cold hearted soldier that already exists. So don't blame Konoha for the mistakes of someone else. If anybody should be blamed, it should be me."

Sora didn't know what to think about that, but was relieved that Konoha wasn't as bad as she had thought. Hell, next time that she is in need of an escort, she'd definitely hire this man who is becoming more and more of an enigma. That and he is quite handsome to boot, if you look past the cold stare he continuously emits.

Kuro looked up at the moon and saw that it was past 10 already. He looked over to Inoichi who nodded. He nodded back and turned his gaze to Sora "Miss Tomohiro, it is time for us to get some rest. We'll be departing at 7 in the morning, so we'll have to wake up at 6. I hope you don't mind waking up that early?"

"Not at all, I usually wake up around that time." Sora said. She stood up, dusted off the sand from her butt and turned around, walking towards the tent only to stop after several feet. She looked back at Kuro with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you coming with me? I thought that you were the first to guard me?" she pouted.

"I'm putting out the fire; after that I'll be coming inside." Kuro said casually, not getting the subtle hint of Sora's advances. Sora noticed and the pout turned from playful to honest, but she walked over to her tent nonetheless. Inoichi just sighed and shook his head. This mission will take a century at this rate, but at least it gives him the opportunity to get a decent grasp of Kuro's mentality and character. Inoichi walked over to his tent and went inside to get some rest; he had to wake up in several hours so he might as well get some sleep first.

After having put out the fire, Kuro walked over to the tent where Sora slept and kept her stuff. When he stepped inside, he spotted a topless Sora who in turn, turned her head towards Kuro slowly. When they made eye contact, Sora gave him a mischievous grin and slowly walked over to Kuro. "Well well. And here I thought you didn't like girls, yet to be so bold and daring. You didn't even take your vest off; that is not fair. You get to see me, but what about poor little me?" She looked at Kuro whose face hadn't changed at all and still remained indifferent to everything around him.

"I didn't know that this was a rule; please forgive me for my rudeness, Miss Tomohiro." Having said that, he unzipped his vest and took it off, revealing the muscled upper body and scarred arms. But Sora didn't notice the scars, only the sheer size of the chest of the man in front of her. ' _Holy shit! This guy is ripped as Hell. Shinobi aren't this muscled; it doesn't fit their ways of combat from what I've seen and heard._ ' This was the moment that she noticed just how tall Kuro was and she blushed. ' _I hope it isn't the only thing that is tall._ ' she thought with a bit of blood running down her nose.

"Is this to your liking, Miss… Miss, you're bleeding. Are you alright?" Kuro asked her.

Quickly wiping the blood from her nose and forcing down her arousal. "Yeah, I'm alright. Guess my blood pressure was a bit too high." she lied.

Kuro noticed the lie but dismissed it as insignificant, as it could not be anything bad.

"Well, you should get some rest. If you need anything, I'm right here sitting on the ground."

Sora just nodded and zipped open the sleeping part of the tent and went inside. "Will you be staying here the whole night? Even when Inoichi-san is here? "

Kuro shook his head. "No, the moment Inoichi takes over my shift, I'll be retreating to the tent where he is currently sleeping."

"Oh, okay that's fair." she mumbled, not really pleased with that, but it would be weird of her to request Kuro to stay even if his shift was over. She is not that desperate; well, at least she doesn't think that she is. "Well, good night, Hitsuji-san." zipping up the sleeping part after having said that.

"Good night, Miss Tomohiro."

After she fell asleep, he took out his book about sealing and began reading until Inoichi took over his shift.

The next morning they left the camp at 7 and Sora hadn't said a word to Kuro yet. She did, however, talk to Inoichi and Kuro didn't mind this at all. He liked the silence. He is not comfortable talking honestly but he can act and take on certain roles, but that was not required at the moment so he did not know how to react to people. He preferred to stay on the sidelines and let other people do the talking, but he'll step in when necessary.

Kuro was reading his book and observing his surroundings at the same time. He noticed that Sora kept shooting him glances from time to time, but made no move to start a conversation with him. And every time she caught him looking at her she would walk in a weird way by swaying her hips and pushing out her chest.

' _What a weird woman'_

Inoichi had said that the town is just 4 hours of travel away and asked Sora if she wanted to take a break first or continue.

This brought out of her attempts to flirt with Kuro and she shook her head "No, there is no need for that. The horses are fine, they can keep this pace for as long as needed."

Just when they were about to depart again Kuro had heard something. He still kept up his façade of reading, but was on high alert. Whoever these people were, they were either very unexperienced or immensely confident in their fighting capabilities. He looked at Inoichi and saw that he hadn't noticed it. He was busy talking with Sora ' _Well, doesn't matter, I don't need my sword for these scrubs anyway._ '

The moment he had finished that thought, the enemy attacked targeting Sora and Inoichi. They must deem him incompetent as he was not wearing the standard jonin or chunin attire, and thus correctly guessed he was a genin. But they underestimated him severely and he'd make them regret that. That is if they had any time left to regret it at all.

Inoichi had blocked and counterattacked the first enemy which resulted in the enemy flying back to where he came from. But he couldn't move in time to intervene with the second attacker because the third kept him busy.

This was where Kuro made his move, he got in a stance that is a mix between jiu jitsu and kick boxing. He got in between the attacker and Sora out of nowhere and used his left back hand to guide the kunai away from him and Sora. He quickly side stepped the man and gave him a series of punches each of the obliterating the ribs by the force. The resulting vibrations in the body made his heart pump full of blood and unable to release it. This build up pressure in the chambers and when the heart wanted to pump the blood through the aorta, the gate between the chamber and aorta did not open. Before the man even knew what had happened he was already dead and Kuro had already grabbed the third attacker at the back of his neck. Without a second of hesitation he snapped the man's neck and threw him to the side.

The fight took no longer than 8 seconds. That meant that these guys were small fry and there was something bigger going on. These ninja's didn't even wear a headband nor used any jutsu, a failed genin maybe?

Sora could only blink, one moment they were attacked and she saw the man running at her. She saw her life flashing by and the next moment her view was obscured for a second and then the man attacking her was already falling to the ground, dead.

"Eh, what…. just." Sora stammered unable to to wrap her mind around the situation.

"Inoichi, these men had some kind of training resembling yours. So that means they are or were ninjas, but I don't see any headbands. Failed genin is my guess, can I assume that my assumption is correct?" Kuro inquired, not even giving a second thought to the men he just killed. He only looked straight at Inoichi, who also seemed to be in thought.

"Yes, I that is a correct assumption. But they knew some maneuvers that are not thought in our academy-"

"So another nations failed soldiers, so we cannot really put the blame on them now. Can we?"

"No, that we can not."

Kuro looked around and saw that no one was physically harmed, the mental part would be a different matter. But that was not his problem, they were hired to keep them alive not sane. He turned his attention to Sora "Shall we continue our journey to the village?"

Inoichi noticed Kuro's indifference to the mental state of Sora and expected nothing else. He did warn them of him being no different than a Root agent, albeit being far more powerful. He should see the Hokage about this matter though, he truly did seem to know next to nothing. He was learning far quicker than anyone else Inoichi had ever seen, hell not even Minato learned this quickly. And Minato was a goddamn genius and a hard worker.

Inoichi dismissed further thoughts and commanded everyone to get their stuff together. Because the attackers aren't trained ninjas, they will be seen as simple bandits. Thus the mission wasn't in danger and remained C-rank.

When they were on their marry way again, Inoichi took Kuro to the side of the caravan to talk to him.

"What is it you want to talk about Inoichi-san?" Kuro asked the man with a raised eyebrow.

"I noticed you using a weird Taijutsu form earlier, I just wondered how you managed to kill the man with a few simple punches?"

Kuro just kept looking at the man trying to find the best way to explain. In the end he just said "Well, my punches were far from simple. If I put strength into my punches I'm able to punch someone in half, but I decided that it would be better to hold back. We might have been observed by others that escaped our notice."

"So how come the man still died so easily then?" Inoichi asked the man, looking Kuro straight in the eyes.

"The laws of Physics" was the simple answer Kuro gave Inoichi. "I'll be going back to my post, we don't want anything to happen now do we."

This left Inoichi pondering as to what he meant w

ith the laws of physics. Luckily he sealed up the bodies, so he could run an autopsy on the when they get back to Konoha. He felt pathetic, Kuro hadn't shown any hostility towards Konoha at all. But he was still very wary and scared of the man and his explanation didn't make it any better. What can you say, when you're a jonin you're expected to be paranoid of everybody. It's how they survive after all, always be on guard, remain vigilant, look underneath the underneath etc. He was stupid to be surprised by mere, no, failed genin. That really showed him that his head was in the gutter.

"Sora-san, how are you doing?" Inoichi gently asked the woman who was just staring straight-forward. She hadn't even teased him yet, so it was obvious how the recent event had affected her. Even if she wasn't even touched at all. Not everybody is made for this work.

Sora blinked and tried to smile at Inoichi's concern, but it was more of a grimace than a smile. "I can handle it, it just happened so fast. I'm glad I became a merchant, ninja's life… I can't call that a life. Sorry if I insulted you, but it's just how I feel."

Inoichi chuckled "Don't be, not everybody is made for this life." Inoichi sighed "I'm not made for field work either, I'm an interrogator. A good one if I say so myself, but fighting isn't really my thing. I had friends who did most of the fighting and I set up the last trap, usually guiding them to a trap or capturing them myself."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"To show you that everyone is different and that I can't blame you for being afraid-"

"It's human nature to be afraid of the unknown. Humans are ignorant creatures after all, what we fear we hate; what we hate we destroy in any way we can. Be it by ignoring the matter or aiming the hate at something or someone who didn't have anything to do with it all." Kuro suddenly interrupted.

Sora and Inoichi looked up from the position to see Kuro looking at them with his usual facial expression. Their faces showed surprise, they couldn't deny what he said though. When you think about it as little kid you were ignorant to a lot of things, so something new was exciting. Hence why the life of a ninja seemed so amazing, because you encounter a lot of new things on your journey. But reality slaps you in the face the moment you face a real mission, that's where most genins either quit or lose their lifes.

"You don't see us in a positive light, do you?" Sora asked with a subdued voice, what Kuro said really got to her. Even if she didn't show it, she was kind of afraid of him now that she has seen what he is capable of. Everything happened so quickly, she could hardly blink or she would have even missed the part her life was in danger.

She knew that shinobi were dangerous, but never realized how much she had to depend on their protection. The amount of money she had to pay in comparison to what the shinobi guarding her had to sacrifice was outrageous. They put their lives on the line for half the money she makes on a good day.

"Humans in general yes. There are some exceptions of course, take the Yondaime Hokage for example. For all his reputation of being a cold blooded killer, undefeatable in battle, he was a good man he loved his village and protected it with his life. Even though it was his job, a lot of humans, be it shinobi or civilian, would flee in the face of the dangers he had faced. And even then there is a big difference as it takes a special kind of person to withstand all of that and stay sane. I'm not saying that everything he did was good, he has his fair share of sins just as I do. Nobody is perfect everyone is flawed. Don't be afraid of your own short comings, just overcome them in another way. That's how we humans have also survived through the centuries that we have lived." Kuro said trying to comfort Sora in his own unique way. He said the last part with a lighter tone to his voice. Even if he didn't like humans, even himself, he could not deny that even though we lack the strength in the physical department we persevere in the mental department.

' _Nobody is perfect, everyone is flawed and being afraid is part of our nature. Huh, never thought about it that way._ ' Sora and Inoichi both thought.

Sora looked up to Kuro with a smile "Thank your Kuro. I really needed that, I never thought that the lives that you Shinobi live would be that dangerous. Ignorance really is a bliss."

Kuro just nodded and took the second book he had brought with him out of his backpack and began to read.

Inoichi looked up at that a bit curious he decided to ask "What happened to the first book? Did you already finish it?"

"I finished it. I got the grasp of how sealing works now. These Uzumaki were outrageously talented in this department. The amount of detail about the basics of the basics is mind numbing. Not a lot of shinobi practices this art anymore I take it." Kuro said while he kept on reading.

Inoichi couldn't believe what he just heard, he didn't have the other book for a week and he finished it. Even said he understood everything he had read. ' _He must be joking, that would be ridiculous. Not even the Uzumaki themselves could learn it this quickly._ '

"I know what you're thinking, but I don't make jokes."

With that the conversations of the day involving Kuro ended and the group continued walking until they arrived in the village in the early evening.

Kuro decided that it would be best if they stayed for a few weeks regarding the attack on the caravan by unaffiliated genin. Who knows, they could have been part of a bandit group or even worse. When Kuro voiced those thoughts Inoichi agreed with him and thus the decision was set. They brought Sora to a house on the outskirts of the village. When they came up to the house Inoichi's jaw would have hit the floor if it weren't for his professionalism. Kuro just voiced his thoughts he didn't care either way. As long as it didn't compromise the mission or damage the image of Konoha he would do it. "You certainly like it big. I never guessed that you earned that much money from your merchandise."

A voice from behind the gates said "My lady is a very successful tailor young sir. She is one of the best in the Elemental Nations, I dare say THE best."

Kuro had already noticed someone approaching, but he couldn't see until the figure stepped out from behind the wall. It was a rather exotic woman, definitely not from the land of Fire. She had a light brown tan, green eyes and long black hair that was tightened up in a bun. She was of average height, making her a lot smaller compared to Kuro's physique. She wore a nicely made maid outfit, one that didn't show a lot of skin but did still hug the curves nicely. The skirt came to just above here knee's, so it wouldn't restrict any movements at all. There seemed to be no corset as the waist-line of the woman seemed to be natural and not forced. ' _That is some nice tailoring there, no restricted movements at all. But still kept the modesty and classy design one expects from the higher classes of society._ ´ Kuro thought appreciating the fine craftsmanship of the clothing.

"I take it Miss Sora also made the maid outfit that you are wearing? I must say the design is really practical as it doesn't seem to restrict movement thanks to the skirt being above the knees and the lack of a corset." Kuro said voicing his opinion, which surprised both the maid and Sora herself. They didn't think Kuro or any man in that regard would pick up on the advantages of her tailoring that quickly.

"That is correct Kuro-kun, but how did you know? Even Inoichi-san looks surprised that you caught onto it so quickly."

"When you've been through everything I have experienced in my short life. You learn that even the smallest detail that would normally be overlooked could make the biggest difference. As you can see, my outfit isn't really that stylish and doesn't seem to be practical as well. My boots seem too big and heavy to really be of any use to a ninja, and yet during our trip or even the small confrontation they never made a sound." Kuro pointed out.

Inoichi had already noticed this and was quite intrigued as he would have thought that those boots would make a lot of noise. Especially since he knew the toes had a metal layer and the rings around his shoe laces were loose and of a metal also.

But Kuro still wasted some energy on useless movements, he noticed that in the small confrontation as well. He swung his arms while running, probably to keep his balance as that is why you subconsciously do so. But to Shinobi that movement is a waste of energy. They trained from an early age to get rid of that natural habit and train a new way of running and keeping balance without the need of that movement.

Sora looked surpised at that, now that she thought about it. Kuro never made a noise while walking or running and didn't seem to be forcing movements at all.

"This mostly comes from a special substance in the soles of my shoes. There was a brand where I came from called Nike that put a gel-like substance at the heels of one of their shoes. They were light and eased up the pressure on the heels to make them more comfortable to wear. But I noticed they seemed to reduce sound quite effectively.

The gel seemed to just absorb the sounds my footsteps normally made, so I requested my superior if it was possible to make something like that." Kuro explained. 

"Hmm, something so simple yet ingenious!" Sora said optimistically seeing the money already.

Kuro suddenly got a great idea and looked at Sora with his usual expression that he had worn in the office not so long ago. "Well, if you want to use my information. I'd like to request that you only make those shoes for our military and no one else. That seems fair right?"

Sora's eyes widened at that "But…"

"No buts, it was my information and thus it is my call." Kuro said stubbornly, even though this is a small thing. It might put him in a better light with the Hokage, and if he wanted to stay he'd take the smallest chance there is.

' _This is so not fair! I am still the one who has to make those damn shoes. Fucking prick shoving me into the corner like this. Hehehe, maybe he likes it rough._ ' Sora thought grinning evily at Kuro. Said person didn't really seem to be affected by it though and just kept on staring at Sora. "Alright, but you still owe me for this!"

"I do?" Kuro asked with raised eyebrows and slighty wider than normal eyes.

"Yes, you do mister. I'm still the one that has to design and make those darn shoes. But I get to decide the price!" Sora stubbornly said. But Kuro seemed to accept these terms judging from the slight movement of his head.

"That seems to be a fair trade, as long as it is me that owes you."

If Inoichi was surprised he certainly didn't show it. ' _This could possibly be the best deal Konoha had in years. Imagine the possibilities if ANBU were to have those shoes, they wouldn't need to use chakra to absolutely silent their movements anymore! This could save a lot of lives in the near future if the quality of those shoes are even close to those of Kuro's._ '

How simple things could change so much.

"Well it's time for us to go the mission is completed. We'll be renting a hotel room nearby Tomohiro-sama so in case you need our assistance before we leave tomorrow feel free to come by. " Inoichi said.

Sora gave Inoichi a grateful smile "Thank you."

With that Kuro and Inoichi departed from the estate and went to the hotel Inoichi mentioned before. They got one room to keep things cheap on Kuro's request, he didn't want Konoha to pay more than needed. And he didn't like to sleep in a bed anyways.

The room itself wasn't anything special, a small appartment with a bed to the side of the room with nice clean white sheets and the frame was made of a darker wood. There was black carpet on the floor and simple curtains at the window; The the bathroom was nothing more than a toilet, a sink and a shower.

Before Inoichi could say anything "I'll take the floor, you can take the bed Sensei."

After they had fallen asleep, well at least Inoichi fell asleep, Kuro went into his mindscape to talk to Kurama. He wanted to know a bit more about chakra and how it all worked. He got a nice picture from it thanks to the books about sealing, but the books didn't explain enough for him to get a good grasp of it.

Kurama was monitoring the development of the chakra gates when Kuro entered the mindscape appearing behind her. Kurama hadn't noticed Kuro yet and kept on mumbling to herself.

Kuro chose to remain silent as he watched Kurama do her thinking. He knew that nothing was wrong with him otherwise he would have noticed and Kurama would have notified him.

Eventually Kurama turned around and her eyes widened a bit when she saw Kuro standing there, staring at her. **"How long have you been here?"** She asked with a higher tone than she usually spoke with.

"For a little while now, you seemed to be in deep thought so I chose not to disturb you. But I came here for a reason, I would like to know if you could explain a few things about chakra to me. You're demon so you have lived longer than any other human alive, this gave me the idea that you knowledge of chakra is far greater than anyone." Kuro said with his usual expression.

" **I guess I could do that, it would benefit me in the long run."** Kurama murmured the last bit to herself. Not knowing that Kuro had also picked this up but chose to remain silent about it.

" **Chakra is the life energy of all living things, it's a balance of Ki and Chi. That means a balance between the physical energy and spiritual energy**."

" **Chakra can be used for a lot of things. Take medic-nins for an example, they can use chakra to manipulate the cells in someone else their body to rapidly multiply to heal wounds."**

" **It can be manipulated to interact with the elements, take earth as an example. They can push they chakra in the ground after a set of handseals to call forth a wall."**

" **You can also empower your body with chakra, to move faster, strengthen your body etc."**

" **But to call forth jutsu Shinobi use handseals, handseals aid the shinobi by converting their chakra. Each handseal has a different effect on your chakra, some of the handseals will not work in conjunction with other hand seals. But if you mix them correctly you'll still be able to do so."**

" **Furthermore you can use multiple chakra natures at the same time to create a sub-element. Take Wind and Water, if you combine the two correctly you'll get Ice also called Hyouton. But to be able to combine multiple elements takes years to practice, but some people have bloodline abilities that make the combining so much easier, that they are able to use those sub-elements."**

"So from that last part I can say that people have a standard nature for chakra? Is this genetically stated or by influence of the environment?"

" **A mix of both. But for you it will be a bit different, as your genetics from what I've seen has you in a neutral position for all elements. That means that you learn everything equally as fast, but you won't have a nack for anything. A jack of all trades."**

"That's better for me, I don't like excelling in one thing if it meant I'll be vulnerable for others."

Suddenly Kuro was ripped from his mindscape and back to reality. He looked around and noted that Inoichi was still sleeping. He wondered why he woke up all of a sudden, he snuck up to the window and pulled the curtain to the side. Just enough for him to peek through and see if something on the outside woke him up. He noticed a few dark clad individuals moving around with a woman in tow, the same thing was happening just a bit further in the street. ' _Bandit attack_ ' Kuro thought, he moved over to inoichi and tapped him on the shoulder.

Inoichi was up and awake instantly and looked at Kuro with a raised eyebrow.

"Bandit attack" was all that Kuro said before he moved out the door. Inoichi still had his sword, but he didn't need it to deal with a couple of bandits.

So he ran downstairs instead of jumping out of the window to check up on the other guests. When he spotted a few bandits trying to break into a room on the second floor he engaged. He quickly ran up to them before they managed to notice him and punched the heads of their shoulders. He left to bodies as he continued his run down the stairs. He took out 12 more bandits before he was outside, he quickly decided it would be better to check on Sora. If she was taken or killed it would mean a bad reputation for Konoha.

Inoichi appeared next to Kuro in full gear again, as he had to put on his sandals and utility-belt etc. "Why attack a village at this hour when they know that we are still here?"

"There is but one reason. And I know you know it as well." Kuro said as her an in the direction of Sora's estate.

"Sora." Inoichi grimly said before he ran after Kuro.

 **At Tomohiro Estate**

Kuro landed in front of the gate and jumped over the fence, just before he got to the front door he saw the maid from before. As she ran outside she ran straight into Kuro not noticing he was there.

"Huh… What?"

Kuro put his hands on her shoulders "Where is Sora?"

The maid looked up at Kuro recognizing him after a second. Before she remembered "They took her! They had knocked me out and took her away. Please help her Shinobi-san!"

"We will don't worry. Have you got anything with her scent on it on you?"

The maid nodded and handed him an handkerchief. "Why do you need this?"

"To smell her out."

"Uh… okay. Go ahead?"

Kuro turned to Inoichi "I'm almost completely sure that there are shinobi involved in all of this. Most likely they are taking all the women and children. For what purpose we have yet to discover."

Inoichi blessed Kuro with a questioning gaze "I agree with you on the shinobi part, but not on the women and children part. But we'll just have to see and save Sora. It won't look good on Konoha if we were to leave her alone now."

Kuro nodded and they went back to the village. When they arrived they helped the people where they could and killed the bandits that tried to intervene. Once they noticed a group of bandits retreating in to the forest on the south, they decided to follow them.

The group of bandits had taken some girls with them, without their consent. If the screaming and kicking was anything to go on. Kuro knew it wasn't smart for him to attack them now, since the forest is still quite big.

But combined with the scent from the handkerchief and the way the group of bandits went, he was sure they were leading him to their base. He had to keep in mind that there was possible shinobi contact at the base.

They were following the bandits for a while when they crossed a clearing, thinking the bandits wouldn't notice them anyway. Kuro and Inoichi took the gamble and followed them in the open.

This way they wouldn't lose them.

The moment the bandits entered the forest Kuro and Inoichi jumped back sensing a small amount of hidden killer intent. That's was the moment the area filled with other shinobi, and judging from their headbands they were from Iwa and Kumo.

Inoichi seemed to pale when he recognized some of the ninja ' _Shit, the Stone brothers. What are they doing here, what are they planning?!'_

Kuro noticed Inoichi's fear and immediately motioned for Inoichi to hand him his sword. But they shinobi already moved to attack and they were forced apart. Kuro jumped to the left whilst Inoichi jumped to the right.

' _This is bad, we got separated._ ' Kuro thought whilst observing his enemy

There were 6 shinobi facing him, some looked to carry themselves with experience. Probably Chuunin or higher. The others looked to be a bit insecure, but having so many of their comrades with them seemed to motivate them. Thus they stayed but were too tense to be of much use.

"You're toast big man! You shouldn't have followed them and now that you have seen us we have to kill you. Konoha can't know about any of this." One of the eager inexperienced shinobi told him.

Kuro just said "So you are planning something against Konoha, good to know.".

The other man just cursed and mumbled about his own stupidity.

"Shit Tomohisa, why did you tell him that! You absolute idiot!" One of the more experienced fighters said pushing his glasses back up.

"Sorry." The man known as Tomohisa apologized.

Kuro slid back into his signature stance and waited for them to strike first. Since he was inexperienced a surprise attack might be fatal to him instead of them. His best bet was to observe and react, he was sure that he had more experience than all of them with life or death situations. His disadvantage was his inexperience with this worlds way of combat.

The one with the glasses engaged first trying to uppercut Kuro, thinking he wasn't that much of a deal. He was proven wrong when Kuro dodged and made the man feel like he's been hit by the Hachibi. He flew all the way past his comrades and through a few trees. Either dead or unconscious.

That's when the rest attacked and some threw some obscenities Kuro's way. Now the situation went in their advantage as they started using jutsu. Every time Kuro tried to hit a chunin the chunin replaced himself with a log.

' _The fuck are they getting the damned logs from? The forest is 50 meters away from here.'_ Kuro thought with annoyance. He knew he was too slow compared to the chunin, but the genin chose to stay away from him and threw a jutsu every now and then.

Kuro managed to dodge one of he katana wielding chunin and hit him in the shoulder. The aforementioned bone shattered and the chunin got launched away. He took this as an opportunity to eliminate the 2 genins that kept annoying him.

He got to the first one before one of the other chunin hit him with an earth spike, luckily he got his body to react in time and was unhurt and undisturbed. He punched the genin so hard in the face that the head exploded.

"Tomohisa! YOU BASTARD!" the other genin yelled trying to punch Kuro in the face. Which he succeeded in. She smirked, thinking she got him. That's when she noticed that Kuro hadn't even moved after receiving the punch. That's when she paled when she saw a small smile on Kuro's face.

Kuro grabbed her by the head and blocked a swipe from a wind enhanced Katana from a Kumo nin. She got sliced in half and Kuro got a gash from the sword aswell.

' _What? It went straight through her and my skin? That shouldn't be possible, a .50 cal can't even penentrate my body. Let alone a puny sword.'_ Kuro thought as he showed nothing on the outside.

The Kumo nin noticed this and sweated a little ' _He's still alive after that, I got a full hit on him. Even with the genin infront of him. This guy is dangerous, really dangerous.'_

Kuro looked at his other 2 opponents and noticed they weren't underestimating him anymore. Since he just took one of their attacks straight on without even flinching, giving them enough reason to think he is a bigger threat than what the initially thought.

Kuro engaged them on his own, knowing that Inoichi might be in trouble with the other shinobi. He threw a rock and a kunai at one of the nins. The other nin just parried the aforementioned projectiles and engaged Kuro in a fight. Kuro had taken a kunai instead of a sword and began to show his prowess with weapons.

After parrying the swipe of an wind enhanced sword he used his right knee to knee the man in the gut. He hit him but there was only a grunt before he had to dodge another swipe.

Just as he landed he rolled to the side dodging a punch from the other nin that was waiting for his time to strike. Just before he managed to stand up he was forced to parry another swipe of a sword. But because of his position on the floor he couldn't fully parry and got nicked on the arm.

He kicked the man off of him and quickly stood up, looking at the other men.

"You're not a genin, you don't fight like a ninja. What are you? You're too strong to be a civilian." One of the chunin asked eying Kuro with curious yet wary gaze.

"Just another type of soldier." Was all that Kuro said before engaging them again. The wound on his chest already healed with the combined help of Kurama and his own healing abilities. ' _Although it's still a lot slower than it used to be. Side effect of the sealing maybe? I should be more careful from now on.'_

One of the chunin replaced himself with a kunai behind Kuro and hit him in the back before he could react. His comrade then swiped at Kuro, but got parried again as Kuro had been expecting that. Kuro dove low and swiped a the feet of the sword wielding nin.

The nin couldn't do anything as he was rather off balance and felt both his ankles snap at the impact. He let go of the katana because of the pain. Kuro quickly grabbed it and decapitated the nin in one smooth swipe.

Now the other nin threw a few kunai and shuriken at Kuro while he jumped back. Once he got some distance he did a few handsigns and yelled **"Lightning Release: Shock Bolt".** After yelling that he punched his right hand outward and a bolt of lightning shot off towards Kuro at an insane speed.

Kuro had no way to dodge or prepare a Battòjutsu and got hit by the bolt. It blew him back but that was all it managed to do. His body quickly got rid of the electricity running through his body and he stood up instantly. He got into his sword stance and sped of towards the nin at an insane speed. Surprising the nin, which also was the end of said person as he got completely destroyed by the **Ryusösen**.

Kuro instantly ran towards Inoichi's side and slashed one of the unsuspecting nin's in the neck decapitating him. Afterwards he had to jump away from a earth dragon that slammed into the ground. The Stone Brothers have joined the fray, after seeing how Kuro eliminated their comrades. Kuro glanced at Inoichi

Inoichi was bleeding, from various cuts over his body and seemed to be breathing heavily. They hadn't even been fighting for 5 minutes ' _They must have used poison.'_

His assumption appeared to be correct seeing inoichi reaching for his heart. Which had no wounds surrounding it.

' _This is bad, I had trouble with chunin. But these guys are a lot stronger I can feel the strength and authority they emanate._ '

One of the brothers clapped in his hands while looking at Kuro "You're a strong fighter, taking on 6 nins. Even if some where genin, you were still up against 4 chunin. Even a normal jonin would be hard pressed against such odds. What is your name?"

Kuro just smiled while widening his eyes, creating a scary look. "Just call me Kuro no Hitsuji or Kuro Hitsuji for short."

"The Black Sheep, eh?" The other brother said.

And before Kuro knew he got blown away through the forest and imbedded on a large rock. Just before he was able to move out he got nailed to the rock by an earth spike.

Kuro coughed up blood before looking at something he hadn't expected to see at all.

"What? How are you-" Kuro said before he got interjected and a fist through his right lung.

"Silence human." The mysterious voice said.

 **Yes that was the chapter for now. It had gotten too long haha I'm almost on 30 pages.**

 **I had most of this chapter done a year ago, so I was able to finish it pretty quick. Only needed another 2 thousand words.**

 **So on this end note I again want to apologize to all my readers and especially for K &K for the beta before the unofficial hiatus. Reading over the beta had also gotten me motivated to start again. Even though some of the things he pointed out were fairly simple, were enough to motivate me to start again. Weird, right?**

 **But there is one thing for sure, I'm back!**

 **Another thing on the side is I want to be able to be in contact with my readers through another source other than reviews. Anyone got any suggestions? Feel free to message me!**

 **I'm releasing this chapter early, so there might be a lot of mistakes in it. But I'll be correcting them soon!**

 **Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review. Even if it is only to state you liked the chapter!**

 **Challas your long lost author,**

 **Ryusen**


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